Don't Fear The Reaper
by Lala Lotsalove
Summary: Kumiko Stiller, A reaper under the goddess Matsuro's rule is in need of rejuvenation and is reborn into a dimension of her choice. There she must exist for the next 50 years if not the outcome...just plain sucks. But dimension 7 was a bad idea.Previo IFH
1. Prologue

Don't Fear The Reaper

(Formerly: Insert Frown Here)

~Prologue~

**Guess What! I've changed the name of the story from 'Insert Frown Here' to 'Don't Fear the Reaper' because the plot has changed slightly since when it was first written. Do not worry; you will not have to re-read the entire story because any changes will be minor/insignificant. **

"So, Koko you wanna go to the mall with me an' Jazz tomorrow?" For no particular reason I found myself suddenly interested in my fingernails. I really need to grow them out."Hey! Kumiko, so are you coming or not?" I glared at the speaker phone that was currently sitting in it's cradle next to my bed. "I don't know Becky …" I trailed off knowing she was doing that thing Rebecca does when I deny her a shopping trip.

Right now she's probably flipping the bird at her speaker phone and in her head is screaming curses that even I, Kumiko Stiller, could ever imagine. One thing about Rebecca Kross, she LOVES to shop…but she'll never shop alone. If she asks you to go and you say no…I shivered at the though of her constant nagging. BUT I ABSOLUTLY HATE MALLS!

"Well if you decide you want to come you can meet us in the food court at 3 pm sharp! Ok?" I sighed and muttered out a low ok and listened as she hung up. I crawled across my bed and turned the phone off.

As I returned to my previous lounging position on my bed I caught a glimpse of myself in my vanity mirror. I'm in college this year, meaning I'm 20 years old. I'm short, 5.3 and I doubt I'm getting any taller. I'm okay in the chest department and have a curvy hourglass figure. My hair is a light chocolate brown with caramel blonde lowlights, it's straight and it goes to my shoulders. To be honest I'm a girly girl. I like pink, I like make-up, I'm afraid of spiders and I like to wear dresses.

I like shopping too, just not at the mall. Well, where do I shop then? Simple. Anywhere that's not the mall. Why do I hate the mall so much? Because the soul reason for its existence is to humiliate, maim and torture me. Every time I go I either fall down the escalator, get framed for shoplifting, spill something on myself, sit in something or accidently walk into a porn shop. And before you say anything, yes I am that dumb.

The door to my room cracked open slightly and my cat, Squeaker, pushed her way in. Immediately she hopped up on the bed, sensing my distress, and began to give me snuggles. I had to sneak her on to campus and thankfully my roommate likes her, so she's safe here. She rolled over on her side as I stroked her warm and fluffy stomach."What do you think I should do squeaky?" She let out that high pitched squeak of hers that is supposed to be a meow and looked at me with her huge green eyes. That always gets me."Alright, fine! I'll go."

XX—XX—XX—XX

I grumbled irritably as I sat down at the food court, a container of fries in hand. I glared at Jazz and Rebecca who were standing across the food court with their boyfriends, waiting to order a pizza. They hadn't told me they were going to bring their boyfriends so I feel like a total fifth wheel.

I shoved another fry into my mouth not bothering to look pretty while I did it. I noticed the people around me subtly shifting away from me because of the obvious killer aura I was giving off. You ever watched the anime Bleach before? Well my aura was like Ichigo's spiritual pressure right now.

I angrily shoved yet another fry in my mouth wondering how I had let my cat talk me into this…and then I realized that cats can't talk. In fact mine can't even meow…it squeaks. Alright, I've officially decided that I'm a lonely loser who needs to;

1. Get a boyfriend

2. Some REAL friends

3. Stop talking to cats

4. Stay away from the mall at all costs.

Jazz turned around and waved at me, not kindly, but almost mockingly. She flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder and turned around to the moron she called a boyfriend, who was currently checking out another girl's ass.

I swear at that moment steam blew out of my ears. I quickly stood up, threw my half full carton of fries in the garbage and took off. I caught Rebecca's eye on my way out of the food court but I didn't wave or make a gesture, I just continued to leave the mall. I needed some fresh air.

Once I was outside the mall I let the cold December air filter into my lungs. It felt nice, the cold making the air taste clean. I heard my cell phones ringtone which was Funhouse by P!nk (I love that song). I flipped it open and read the text message before me:

**12/11/09 3:35 pm**

**From: Rebecca**

**To: Kumiko**

**What did u take off for? Wher'd u go?**

I quickly responded:

**12/11/09 3:37 pm**

**From: Kumiko**

**To: Rebecca**

**Felt lik a 5th wheel. Sry, for takin' off but I wasn't having much fun. + Jazz wuz being bitchy fr some reason.**

I sent it and within seconds I received a reply:

**12/11/09 3:39 pm**

**From: Rebecca**

**To: Kumiko**

**I guess Jazz wuz right when she said that u were jealous of us. If u keep being jealous I dont tink we can bee friends no more.**

I was furious. What would cause Jazz and Rebecca to think I was jealous of them and their brainless boyfriends? Enraged I snapped my phone shut and stepped off the curb without thinking. I heard a honking noise and turned around just in time to see the nose of a public bus heading towards me. Knowing there was no time to run I closed my eyes and braced myself. I felt my feet being dislodged from the ground and the air being forced out of my lungs. The last thing I thought before my head hit the hard asphalt was; This is why I HATE malls.

XX—XX—XX—XX

Rebecca snapped her phone shut and glanced at Jazz who had been looking over her shoulder the whole time. "She's so jealous. I mean if she wasn't she would have replied." Jazz said matter-o-factly. Rebecca wearily nodded.

"Dude you'll never guess what just happened!" Jazz's boyfriend had returned from outside. He had gone for a smoke just a minute after Kumiko, or Koko as they liked to call her, had left. "What?" Jazz asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes. Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Some chick just got hit by a bus!" Immediately her boyfriend wanted to go take a look and before they knew it she and Jazz were on their way to see too.

Once they got outside she immediately spotted the body of a young woman sprawled out across the pavement, her brown hair covering her face like a mask. A pool of blood was surrounding her and Rebecca forced herself to look away. She noticed jazz bend down and pick up something at her feet. Rebecca peered at it also. "Must be the chick's cell phone." Her boyfriend said snatching it away. "Let's check out who's on her contacts list." Jazz's boyfriend said flipping it open. Rebecca felt disgusted with how this woman's death didn't seem to matter to them.

"Hey look Jazz, you and Rebecca are on here." Jazz's boyfriend said handing the phone back to the two girls. Jazz, who was holding the phone, just stared at it. But Rebecca grabbed her own phone and dialed Kumiko's number. The dead woman's phone started ringing and the foursome turned their attention back to the cold, lifeless body that was once Kumiko Stiller.

XX—XX—XX—XX

White…

That's all Kumiko could see. It was a pure white. Whiter then freshly fallen snow, whiter then the whitest wedding dress.

Bright…

The blank world around her glowed brightly. Piercing, clear light that made her eyes ache.

Those were the first things that registered in her mind as she lay there, eyes open. Suddenly, she realized she was not breathing and she quickly struggled to take a breath. Finally she succeeded. It was more like a gasp then a breath but after that her breathing became more normal. She stood up slowly, her forest green eyes scanning her surroundings.

Nothing.

She saw nothing. Just white. Just, blinding white.

"**Kumiko Stiller…"** Came the whisper. The voice sounded like the wind, quietly swooshing past her ears.

"Wh-who s-said that." She choked out.

"**That doesn't matter Kumiko Stiller…"** This time the voice sounded like it came from behind her so she whipped around to face whoever it was who was speaking to her. She was met with nothing.

"Alright then," She said cautiously "where am I?" It was a few moments before the voice answered, but when it did she found she was unsatisfied with what it said. **"That doesn't matter either. What matters is why you are here."**

Kumiko stayed silent and waited for the spirit-like voice to continue.**"You have been chosen from millions of souls to be my follower."**

"Whoa, whoa, whoa follower? I didn't sign up to be a minion!" Kumiko protested loudly, swinging her arms in the air.

"**Too bad, you have no choice."** The voice sounded irritated now. Kumiko calmed down realizing the voice was right. The last thing she remembered was being very angry and then being hit by a bus.

"What do I do then?" She asked, excepting her fate.

"**I need you to become a Reaper."**

"Like the Grim reaper? What's a reaper?"

The voice chuckled. **"A reaper is the only being in the universe that can live a thousand lives. A reaper is able to travel to different dimensions."**

"Oh…What does a reaper do?"

"**A reaper's soul purpose is to collect souls of the dead, help them pass on."**

"How do I collect souls?"

"**You'll learn young reaper, you'll learn."** Suddenly the world around her began to turn to color. "Wait! Whoever you are! Please tell me your name!" She called frantically.

"**I am Matsuro."**

XX—XX—XX—XX

Kumiko stalked down the black corridor, ignoring the fact that her eyes were leaking blood. Finally, she reached a door and she furiously yanked it open. She ground her teeth as her green catlike eyes landed on a white silhouette of a woman.

The woman was tall, with long platinum blonde hair and steel blue eyes. She wore a long, white, shapeless robe that trailed on the ground and her hair was tied in a loose Dutch braid.

"MATSURO!" She shouted and before the woman even had a chance to turn around Kumiko was at her throat. **"Yes Kumiko?"** The woman asked calmly, despite the fact she was extremely close to death. "What the hell is this?" She pointed to her bleeding green orbs.

Matsuro took her time, narrowing her eyes at the crimson liquid and then closing them in thought. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity she replied. **"It is your time of renewal."** Kumiko released her master and took a step back, confusion apparent on her face. "Renewal?" She had never heard of a 'renewal' before.

Suddenly, the room they were in turned into the white world that Kumiko had grown accustom to.**"Remember when I first contracted you to my services?"** Kumiko nodded.

"**Well, that was exactly 150 years ago."**

"So?" Matsuro chuckled.

"**Every 150 years, a reaper must 'go on holiday' in order to keep up their strength."** Matsuro sighed at Kumiko's confused expression. **"In other words, every 150 years you will be reborn into a dimension of your choice. You must survive there for 50 or more years."**

"And if I don't 'go on holiday'?" Kumiko asked snidely.

"**Then you will become powerless. You will no longer be a reaper, just a useless wandering soul that is unable to pass on, even with the help of a reaper."** Kumiko looked a little put off at this. Then she asked more quietly.

"And what if I don't survive for 50 years or more?"

"**The same thing. A wandering soul, never to pass on."** Before Kumiko could ask any more questions a water-like substance appeared at their feet. **"Is their any dimension you've been to that you wish to live in?"**

Kumiko wanted to say # 54, which was her home dimension but she remembered how miserable she was there. She didn't remember the numbers of any other dimension so she closed her eyes and called out a random number.

"# 7?" It sounded more like a question but Matsuro took it as an answer anyway, and when Kumiko opened her eyes again, she was standing in an alleyway. She looked down at her new body, it was that of a 5 year old girl.

Kumiko smiled, her best memories happened when she was 5 and that was a verrry long time ago. She took a deep breath and walked out of the alleyway, ready for whatever challenges faced her.


	2. Year Seven

Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 1~

Year Seven

**Disclaimer: Lala no own Naruto or characters…** *** T-T ***

_Dear Journal,_

_It is the New Year today…I've been in this dimension for a total of 7 years. My body is 12 years old as of today. I have spent seven years in dimension seven…I've never been to this dimension before. I just randomly selected it. But I find this place quite interesting. In fact one might even say I LIKE it here. It has been a long time since I've liked anything…but I know it won't last long. My happiness never does._

_Until next year,_

_Kumiko Stiller_

Kumiko closed up the plain black journal and activated the seal on the cover using her chakra. As soon as the seal was set the white markings began to fade, making it appear to be unprotected. She put the journal in her plain tan backpack and pulled it over her shoulder.

She gave the campsite she, her sensei and her teammates had spent the night in last night. It was in the middle of a bamboo forest, she and her team had created a small clearing. There were dark patches of earth where their tents had been se up and their makeshift fire pit sat in the center. Around it they had rolled a few logs so they could sit on them to eat their meals.

She stretched her arms over her head; made sure her battle scythe was fastened onto her back properly and then quickly dashed out of the campsite and through the millions of bamboo shoots. As she was running she lifted her hand to trace the symbol on her forehead protector, which was now tied lazily around her neck. It was 4 diagonal lines.

As it so happens, Kumiko had been reborn in Kirigakure, the Village Hidden In The Mist. She had landed herself in an orphanage and was quickly adopted, much to her surprise. She had gone to the academy and learned to use energy known as chakra. She graduated quickly and easily because she was basically a woman in a little girl's body, meaning her brain could process hard things more easily. She was then made a genin and placed in a "3 man cell".

Right now, she and her teammates were headed to something known as the "chuunin exams" and if they pass, they're made chuunin. Personally, not being from this world she didn't get why these people wanted such complicated lives. Why not just be a "civilian" as they called normal people? She shrugged of the thoughts and focused on where she was going.

Once she made it to the outskirts of the bamboo forest she glanced around and smiled when she found what she was looking for.

There were her traveling companions.

"KUMI!" Shouted a voice and she felt her best friend Mitsu, latch onto her.

Mitsu was taller then her by 5 inches and also a year older, making her 13. Mitsu had but length fire orange hair that was tied back in a low ponytail and chocolate brown eyes. She was a very optimistic person; she could be out numbered 10 to 1 and still be smiling. She wore light tan baggy pedal pushers and a light blue tank top. She wore the normal black ninja sandals and her kunai pouch on her left thigh. Her forehead protector, that bore the symbol of the Mist village, was tied on her forehead. Her nails and lips were painted a very light purple color and she had a tiger's tooth necklace hanging from her neck.

"Hey Mits…you're choking me…" Kumiko breathed out. "Oh sorry!" She felt the pressure lift from her lunges and she let out a sigh of relief, a sweat drop appearing on her forehead.

"Oi! You two love birds done snuggling?" A tic mark appeared on her forehead and she turned to glare at her second teammate. "Shut up, Takeo!" She said whacking him on the head. He just continued to smirk.

Takeo was average height for a 13 year old (yes he was also older then Kumi), had steel blue eyes and wild silver hair. His hair stuck up and went in every direction. He wore a black, high collar spandex t-shirt, baggy gray cargo pants and black ninja sandals. His arms were wrapped up in bandages and on the back of his shirt, in between his shoulder blades, was his clan's symbol, a snake curled up in a spiral form. His forehead protector was tied around his right arm and his kunai pouch was fastened on his left hip.

Suddenly, Mitsu threw a rock at Takeo's head causing him to tackle her. Kumiko rolled her eyes and watched as their sensei approached to break up the fight.

Kojuro-sensei stood at an intimidating 6.4. He was lean and wore a plain black t-shirt and ninja pants. He wore a gray Anbu vest, grey ninja sandals and his kunai pouch on his left hip. His forehead protector was tied tightly around his right arm. He had shaggy dark brown hair and onyx eyes. Over all he looked pretty plain. But if you looked a little closer you could see the numerous scars and tattoos scattered along his arms and most likely the rest of his body. He had several silver chains hanging from his waist, which he used in his jutsus and a normal looking katana on his back.

"Enough." Kojuro-sensei's husky voice barked and immediately the two that were fighting stopped. Then he turned to Kumiko. "Kumiko, what took you so long?" She bit her lip slightly; she couldn't let them know about her journal. Knowing Takeo and Mitsu, they'd try to steal it. She looked up at her sensei and replied in an even tone.

"I stopped to make sure we didn't leave anything behind. Sorry if I worried you." That answer seemed to satisfy her sensei and he turned around grumbling something along the lines of 'don't let it happen again'.

But her mind was elsewhere.

She had just caught sight of herself in a puddle at her feet. She looked a little different than she did in her home dimension. She still has the same chocolaty-caramel, straight hair except now it's longer and she has side bangs that cover a little bit of her right eye. Her eyes were no longer forest green, but neon green and her pupils resembled those of a cat. She had a feeling she was going to grow a little taller than she did in her home dimension too. She wore a bubble gum pink shirt.

Its sleeves only went to her elbows and fanned out. Her right arm was completely covered with black fishnets, where as only her hand was covered with fishnet on her left. She wore black cargo shorts and underneath those her legs were covered with black fishnet panty hose and wore heavy, black boots that went mid calf.

Slung over her back was her battle scythe. It had a short handle that extended when she pumped chakra into it and the blade was shiny platinum silver that turned black when it came into contact with blood. Her nails and lips were painted a hot pink and her she had black eyeliner surrounding her cat eyes. Around her neck, hidden behind her forehead protector, there was a black choker that had the silver kanji for fate on it.

"Oi, Kumiko! Are ya comin or what?" She heard Takeo's voice call and she looked up to see the rest of her group waiting for her quite far away. Without saying anything she ran towards them and they all continued on their way to the leaf village.

XX—XX—XX—XX

_Ugh! I'm lost!_ Mitsu groaned inwardly at how stupid she was. She should have just eaten at the ramen shop with Takeo and Kumiko. But no! She wanted barbeque! Now she was lost… in a strange village full of strange people.

Even so, she kept walking in the same direction she was headed, hoping that she would run across a landmark or something. What she didn't expect was to walk right into a fight. She leaned up against the tall wooden wall that these crazy leaf people called a fence and watched the fight with interest.

There were what appeared to be 2 leaf genin, 3 academy students and 2 sand genin. She watched, not bothering to listen, as the kid with the orange yelled something at a guy who was dressed like a kitty-cat and had kabuki face paint, who was currently holding one of the academy students like he was going to punch him.

Just before kitty could bring his fist down on the innocent kids face a rock came out of nowhere and hit him in the hand drawing blood. Every one looked over at a tree and Mitsu followed their gaze to see a boy standing there.

She felt her cheeks heat up a bit. _Wow. He's hot…and skilled too._She thought, only deepening the blush. She shook her head getting rid of the burning sensation and then she did the only Mitsu thing to do.

She clapped.

All eyes snapped to her, including those of the redhead that only she had noticed so far. "Bravo." She said stepping out of the shade of the fence. Several eyes widened and she rolled hers, how could they NOT notice her.

"Who the hell are you!" The blonde shouted pointing at her. She disappeared and reappeared behind him pressing a kunai to his throat. "I'm me." She whispered creepily in his ear and then she disappeared again, than reappeared in front of him.

"Hey blondie, you know where the Steamy Shore Hot Springs are? You see I sorta got lost." The blonde kid looked like he was thinking but she knew that all there was inside his head was a monkey playing a tambourine. It was the girl with pink hair that answered. "It's just down that way, then you take a left, go straight, take another left and it's the first hotel on the block." The whole time she eyed Mitsu suspiciously.

"Thanks I-" She was cut of by someone running towards her. She turned around to see Takeo. "Hey, there Taky!" She screamed in his ear. He replied with. "Finally I found you! Sensei says we're going to do some last minute training, he managed to book a training ground for us." She peered around him to see Kumiko walking sullenly towards them.

Kumiko glanced at the group, including kitty who still had the academy kid by the neck. She walked up to him leaned into his face and said. "If I were you I'd put that kid down. Judging by the aura radiating off of you're friend there, he's not to impressed with you right now." She gestured towards the tree and everyone must have thought she met the hot emo guy because kitty said "Pft! He's not my friend. I don't even know him!"

It was at that moment that the redhead decided to make his appearance. Kitty dropped the kid instantly. "I meant that guy." Kumiko stated then she abruptly turned around and yelled "Come on you two morons, time's a wastin'." Takeo huffed at being called a moron but followed anyway.

"Uh, thanks for the directions, but I guess I won't be needing them…" Mitsu said rubbing the back of her head. She ran after her friends only to be stopped by a voice. "Wait! Tell me your names!" It belonged to emo boy. All three of the mist genin stopped, and turned around to face the other group. Takeo smiled knowing asking for a name was a challenge.

"Tell us your name first and we'd be happy to tell you ours." He told the emo boy. Emo boy smirked. "Uchiha Sasuke." Takeo was happy to reply.

"Yagura Takeo."

"Kinsaki Mitsu."

Kumiko was silent for awhile. "Before I give you my name, Uchiha Sasuke, I would like to know the names of everyone else here." Her voice was like velvet but sounded commanding.

" Subaku no Gaara." Said the redhead surprising kitty and the blonde girl beside him.

"H-Haruno Sakura." Said pinkie sounding a little stunned that someone had asked her name.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Believe it!" The blonde shouted.

Mitsu giggled.

"Hey what's so funny!" Naruto asked pointing at her. "You're kinda cute." Mitsu grinned like a cat when Naruto turned beat red and fell over.

" Kankuro." Stated Kitty.

"Temari." The blonde who hadn't said anything in a long time said. Kumiko was silent for a few more moments taking in all of the names.

"Hanadeka Kumiko. Bye." Kumiko said and turned and walked away.

Mitsu waved cutely, blew a kiss at Naruto and then ran off to walk beside Kumiko. Takeo sent one last glare Sasuke's way before turning and stalking out after the girls.

XX—XX—XX—XX

"Kumiko! Concentrate!" She heard her Kojuro-sensei shout at her just as he hit her in the head sending her flying back. She hit a tree and slid to the ground.

"Kumiko…" She looked up as her sensei approached his look half disapproving and half worried. "What's wrong? You seem distracted…" Kumiko got up, ignoring her sensei for the time being.

"I know what's wrong with her…" Takeo stated, stopping mid spar with Mitsu and making his way over to his sensei and teammate. "Kumiko's just afraid of a little competition is all." Kojuro-sensei raised an eyebrow. "We ran into some pretty strong sand genin today in town. I bet Kumiko here is afraid." Takeo taunted.

"No I am NOT! I'm just worried. That guy…Subaku no Gaara…there's something off about him…something _demonic_." Kojuro-sensei tensed at the name Gaara.

"Kumiko's right." He turned so he was facing all three of his students. "Be wary of this Subaku no Gaara. No good will come of you challenging him." Mitsu looked like 'you don't need to tell me twice', Takeo looked a little defiant and Kumiko eyed her sensei carefully.

He knew something.

He knew something important and he was hiding it from them.

But what could it be?


	3. Ah, Mornings

Don't Fear The Reaper

Chapter 2

Ah, Mornings

**I don't own Naruto.**

Mornings are not a pleasant time for anyone and a certain ninja squad from Kirigakure was no exception.

Here's a quick summary;

The three of them had risen before 5 am this morning in order to be completely ready for the first exam, which starts at 8 am. Takeo and Mitsu had fought tooth and nail over the bathroom and while they weren't paying attention Kumiko sauntered in. Mitsu had then pushed Takeo into the door which had made the door slam open to reveal a half naked Kumiko in only her bra and sweat pants that she had worn to bed. To make the morning better Kojuro-sensei had chosen that moment to enter the room with a grave look on his face.

That look quickly changed to shock.

His star pupil was half naked and staring blankly at his only male student, who was lying on the floor in an awkward position and turning cherry red while his other female student looked on trying to keep herself from laughing uncontrollably. This little incident, since it was not witnessed from the very start by said sensei, will provoke a little sex-Ed chat between said sensei and his only male student.

"Um. I know this looks, erm, real bad but it's not-" Takeo started, jumping away from the half naked Kumiko, who merely sighed and pulled her green t-shirt bake over her head.

"What is it Kojuro-sensei?" She asked. Kojuro was trying to ignore the fact that he had just seen more of Kumiko then he had hoped he ever would. He hastily cleared his throat.

"Ah, um…" _Awkward…_ he thought. "Well. I have some bad news." Suddenly all three of his students were completely alert. Usually Kojuro-sensei barely converses with them unless it's very important. One time the genin squad leaders (Kojuro-sensei included even though he's Anbu) were told to inform their squads of a possible attack against the village.

He never did.

They found out after the attack from another genin squad's sensei (he was disbelieving that they weren't told).

"We have been recalled to the village."

"Wh-what! But it's the first day of the exams!" Mitsu protested. Kumiko narrowed her eyes and Kojuro braced himself for questioning. "Why? On what grounds?" Kojuro sighed as he glanced away from her catlike pupils that were changing size with subtle outrage. _God they're creepy…_

"Fine. Here's how it went." He caved. "Yesterday night at exactly 11:45 pm a messenger from Sunagakure arrived. He warned the council and Mizukage that they, being Sunagakure and Otogakure, were planning on attacking Konohagakure sometime during the third part of the exams. They gave us two options. Remain neutral by removing our genin from the exam or we could keep our genin in the village and join in on the attack."

"So we chose to remain neutral…" Kumiko mused to herself.

"Yes." Kojuro nodded. "I apologize you two. I wish you could participate."

"You…two?" Mitsu questioned.

"Yes unfortunately. The council realized that if ALL of our genin pulled out of the exams before they even started it would one, look bad on the village, and two, raise suspicion. If we all left Konohagakure will figure out that we knew about the attack, label us as traitors and accomplices therefore loosing what little peace we have with them. Also, the Mizukage is interested in seeing how this plays out. So they decided they would compose a team of our strongest genin to stay behind. They negotiated with the Sunagakure and Otogakure who agreed that it would raise suspicion and decided it was a good idea; however the team is not to engage in combat. That team is composed of Kumiko Hanadeka, Kyoia Satoshai and Toshi Nekonasai." Kojuro finished and had to stop himself from flinching at Takeo's extremely pissed of exclamation at the mention of 'Toshi Nekonasai' his rival.

"What! Toshi the bastard gets to stay and participate!" Kojuro-sensei groaned.

"Congrats Kumi!" Mitsu yelled jumping randomly on her. "Kumiko. You'll rendezvous with your new team in…" Kojuro checked his watch. "10 minutes for breakfast at this location." He handed her a piece of plain lined paper that had been folded neatly.

"Thanks. Bye guys…I'm sorry…" Takeo sighed but nodded and Mitsu just smiled back encouragingly. Kumiko glanced at them one last time before returning to the bathroom, making sure to lock it this time.

XXX

Kumiko emerged from the bathroom. Her team was gone. _Huh, must be leaving the village when the Konoha shinobi switch their gate patrols so no one sees them._ She sighed and brushed her fingers against the fate pendant that clung to her neck.

A present from Matsuro after she had spent a year here. It was something she used when she did some of her 'special' jutsu, that require her reaper energy. If it weren't for that pendant she wouldn't be able to perform most jutsu at all because she had to use it to create chakra.

"Tch…" She let air escape from between her teeth as she tied her forehead protector loosely around her neck, but tight enough that it hid her pendant. Another minor thing Matsuro hadn't mentioned was how every time she turned around she needed to fight.

Oh how she wished she was back in her 'birth dimension' as most reapers put it. Kumiko, however, like to refer to it as 'hell before lower hell before this new hell'. It made no sense to anyone else, but it did to her and that's all that matters. She glanced cautiously at her watch.

"Five minutes." She said in a blunt monotone. She stood there for a moment as 'five minutes' sunk into her brain…

"FIVE MINUTES!"


	4. Getting To Know You

Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 3~

Getting to know you~!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Think of that song from 'The King and I'. **

Kyoia Satoshai was always punctual.

She has never been late once. In fact, she is ALWAYS fifteen minutes early. So while our heroine, Kumiko Hanadeka, was just receiving this news of a new team, Kyoia was already lounging around in a booth at an extremely fancy restaurant known as 'Kaori's'. It was so full of rich snobs, even at this early hour, that Kyoia felt ready to puke. She sighed and slumped down in her seat, not really caring if the rich bastards disapproved or not.

She spent her whole life trying to impress her guardian's council member buddies and now that they aren't here she doesn't have to put on a show for anybody. She huffed out some air and watched the door hopefully for her sensei…then realized that she had know idea what her new sensei looked like. Ten minutes passed and finally an interesting individual walked through the door.

She was from Kirigakure and a genin so Kyoia assumed that she was one of her knew teammates. The girl's cat pupil eyes seemed to scan the restaurant carefully and they grew wider with intrigue when they landed on Kyoia. Kyoia waved subtly, only a slight flick of the hand, but the girl got the message and walked over, her heavy boots surprisingly silent on the fancy wood flooring.

Obviously a skilled kunoichi.

"You are Kyoia Satoshai I assume." The girl said coming up to sit beside her.

"Remember girly, Assume makes an Ass out of you and me." Seeing the girl's confused look she sighed and replied properly. "Yeah, I'm Kyoia. Who're you?" Kyoia's sensei had not given her the knowledge of who her team was, only a quick summary of the night before, its events and an address all scribbled down on a piece of paper.

Hell, her sensei and team were probably half way to Kiri by the time she woke up.

"My apologies. That was rude of me. I am Kumiko Hanadeka and I believe you are one of my new teammates."

XXX

She stood outside the fancy looking restaurant, her eyes looking from the address on the paper to the building. Sure enough, the address of the restaurant and the address on the piece of paper matched. When she entered the restaurant she scanned it carefully, expecting to find a booth with 3 other people in it.

Instead her eyes met those of another girl her age who was sitting alone in a booth.

The girl also had a Kirigakure headband around her neck, though it was tied tight enough to be a noose. She had brilliant knee length black hair and two shoulder length dark purple bangs that framed her face. Her skin was ghostly pale like a delicate porcelain doll, but were features are rough and hard. She was wearing a black belly length halter top, baggy black cargo pants, black fingerless fishnet gloves, black standard issue ninja sandals and two dark purple belts with spiked studs that criss-crossed over her stomach like an X. She had what appeared to be a folded fan, about 2 ft long strapped to her left leg, the visible edges glinting subtly like metal.

The other girl waved subtly and Kumiko silently made her way over and sat down carefully. "You are Kyoia Satoshai I assume." The girl gave a light chuckle and then replied, her voice husky.

"Remember girly, Assume makes an Ass out of you and me." Kumiko raised an eyebrow in confusion. What the hell was this girl talking about? "Yeah. Who're you?" The girl finally replied. Kumiko smiled, she might just end up enjoying this new team if this girl was on it. She wasn't like anyone she'd ever met before.

"My apologies. That was rude of me. I am Kumiko Hanadeka and I believe you are one of my new teammates." The girls sat for a few more minutes, making little conversation but conversation none the less. They talked about their families and Kumiko even convinced Kyoia to talk about crushes.

Kumiko's first impression of the other girl was correct; she was rough around the edges, a sadist and a little bit cold. But Kumiko believed that if someone worked hard enough you could bring out a little good in her.

Eventually a boy, about 14 years old, approached them while they weren't looking; the two looked up then at the tall, adult sized boy.

But then again it is actually very common to see adult sized teen boys in Kirigakure. The shortest adult man from the mist that Kumiko ever met was 6.2. They get almost seven feet tall around there.

He was wearing a Kirigakure headband tied firmly over his eyes like a blindfold, which the two girls thought odd. He had short, untameable, silver hair, with two longer strips of hair that hung over his headband and into his face, stopping at his chin. He was dressed in knee length black pants with bandages that covered the remainder of his legs; loose high collared light blue t-shirt that showed off a nice bit of his already sculpted chest. He was wearing black military boots that if you looked hard enough were equipped with weapons and a thick black belt that had his kunai pouch hanging off of it. A string necklace which had what appeared to have a rock carved in the shape of an oval hung down from his neck and you could clearly see a black dragon tattoo that wound up his right well built arm.

"You are?" Kyoia asked rudely, causing Kumiko to give her a disapproving look.

"Toshi Nekonasai." The strange boy answered in a complete monotone as he sat down on the Kumiko's other side.

"So you're the guy Takeo hates so much?" Toshi turned his head to face her for a moment and she got the brief upturn at the corners of his mouth though his voice was still a monotone.

"Yeah." They sat in a bit of an awkward silence, each of them hoping someone would break it. Finally Kyoia sighed and switched her position so she was leaning back against the booth, hands behind her head and eyes closed. Then she opened one eye and threw a sidelong glance in Toshi's direction.

"Doesn't having your eyes blindfolded affect your sight?" She felt him tense beside her and she understood immediately, but she waited to see what he would say.

"No. It doesn't. I'm already blind so it doesn't matter." The black haired girl raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth but Kumiko cut her off.

"You're blind and yet you are still a skilled shinobi. I'm impressed."

"Thank-you." Kyoia 'hmmed' for a moment and went to say something but stopped, her eyes pointed in the direction of the door, Kumiko followed her gaze. Toshi swivelled his head and his mouth parted slightly; Kumiko would ask him about that later as she noticed him do it frequently.

A man quickly walked to their table, the Kirigakure headband tied around his left thigh. He was tall, 6.6 ft., had short, blood red hair with a single black streak running through it. His eye were a warm hazel colour, though there was something cold and off about them, sort of like they were fake. His skin was pale like Kyoia's and his expression hard, almost cruel. He wore a plain long sleeved mesh shirt under an Anbu vest, signature Kirigakure gray camouflage pants and heavy mid-calf black boots. He wore black arm covers that had retractable blades in them and wore black metal plated gloves. Like Kojuro-sensei, his body was also littered with scars and tattoos.

"I'm your new sensei, Hiro Yerinozuka. But it's Hiro-sensei to you." He stated briskly sitting down and handing each of them two sheets of paper and a pen. The first was the registration form for the exam that each of them had already filled out but had to be redone because of the team change. The second was a blank sheet of paper.

"You're going to fill in the registry form again with your new team information. Then we're going to try and get to know each other as well as possible within the remaining 45 minutes we have until the exam starts. We'll do the normal introductory game you played with your team when you were just made genin, if you remember, except we'll add your previous team and sensei." The three nodded.

"What's the second sheet for?" Toshi asked with just the slightest hint of curiosity.

"You're going to write down all your jutsu and summaries of this jutsu, including kekkei genaki and then we'll clone the sheets so on the way to the exam you can study your new teammates' abilities." The three teens nodded again and set about filling out both sheets of paper. About 5 minutes later they were done and ready to begin the tough process of getting to know each other.

"I'll start." Hiro-sensei told them after cloning the sheets and taking the originals for himself. "My name, as you know, is Hiro Yerinozuka. My likes are training, my three daughters and onigiri. My dislikes are anything too sweet, reading and dull kunai. My hobbies are snowboarding and crafting unique weapons. No previous team or sensei obviously…" He looked around for the next person his gaze landing on Kyoia.

"Black haired girl." He called on her and she glared.

"Kyoia Satoshai. I like storms, reading and blood. I dislike vegetables and when my enemy just doesn't know when to die. My hobby is…" She paused and blushed a little "promise you wont laugh!" she tried to threaten but it was hard to believe. They nodded. "Well, um…my hobby is gardening…" The rest of the group smirked at the thought of the rough and tough girl on her hands and knees taking care of flowers. She ignored them and continued. "My previous team was Nao Kinsaki and Yasuchika Onami. My previous sensei was Ryo Jinkotsu."

"Okay. You pick who goes next." Hiro-sensei told her.

"Toshi." She said, a smirk beginning to grow on her face.

"Toshi Nekonasai. I like poisons, citrus fruits, and cold weather. I dislike waiting in line at the grocery store and cleaning. My hobby is cooking." Everyone tried to imagine the stoic boy in a frilly apron and oven mits. "My previous teammates were Rins Dekomata and Kyoya Mitsname. My previous sensei was Zenaku Hiuuki."

"Okay, brunette girl."

"My name is Kumiko Hanadeka. My likes are pretty things, apples, shopping and felines. My dislikes are bitter things, dogs and people who hide their faces. My hobby is painting. My previous team was Mitsu Kinsaki and Takeo Yagura. My sensei was Anbu captain Kojuro Onami." She stated without looking up from where she was scribbling down her jutsu.

They spent the rest of the time eating quietly and filling out their papers, making sure they had their passports before it was time to leave. The walk to Konohagakure's Academy, the site of the first exam was filled with comfortable silence as they looked over the papers that held their new teammates jutsu's and specialties, every now and then one of them would comment or compliment on a jutsu.

She learned that the reason Toshi parted his mouth frequently was because his clan trait was echo location and because he was blind it was obvious that he used it to see.

Finally they reached the academy, never looking up from the papers they were reading until they heard Hiro-sensei's voice. "I wish you the best of luck. Here's the number to our new hotel room in which we will be sharing. Don't fail. Don't die." Then he was gone. As usual Kyoia decided it was her job to break the silence.

"Well he's a pleasant fellow."


	5. Re encounter

Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 4~

Re-encounter

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

The three walked slowly towards the large wooden doors. Kumiko smiled as her eyes shifted to her teammates who walked on either side of her. Kyoia was quivering, her pupils widening with anticipation and bloodlust, something that she had warned her two new teammates about. Toshi was cracking the bones in his neck and then moving on to his knuckles. "Are you ready?" Kumiko whispered the question, smirking as Kyoia rolled her eyes. "Obviously." Toshi nodded and Kumiko took a deep breath before opening the door.

It opened to reveal...another empty hall.

XXX

"God dammit Kumiko! I thought you said this was the door!" Kumiko sweat dropped as Kyoia growled and looked around their surroundings, head whipping around quickly. Toshi simply sighed a large huff, his arms crossed. In case you hadn't already guessed the Kirigakure team was lost...in the Konohagakure academy.

At first they couldn't find the stairs, so they wandered the hall aimlessly until they found stairs. They turned out to be THE WRONG STAIRS as they were forced to also wander the halls aimlessly yet again. Door after door they either came across more hallways, empty classrooms or, on occasion, more wrong stairs. They weren't even sure what floor they were on anymore, all the going up stairs, going down stairs, turning left, turning right and flinging open doors had left them completely and hopelessly lost.

"I can't believe, we're lost in an academy..." Toshi muttered turning his glare to the wall beside him.

"I say we go down this hall and see if we can find someone to tell us where to go." Kumiko decided walking forward only to stop mid-step when she heard a loud, obnoxious "Hey you!" from behind her. She could recognize that voice anywhere and the mess of blond hair that accompanied it, though the name escaped her... "NARUTO!" There was a loud thud as she assumed the pink haired companion of his hit him.

She turned slowly regarding the three leaf village genin that walked towards her with bored eyes, a mask of the panic that made her heart pound. Great just what she needed. These guys knew her old team and would ask questions when she saw her new one. She had to make up a lie and fast...She took in her new teammates' expressions as they observed the newcomers as well. Kyoia narrowing her eyes with curiosity and obvious dislike at the trio, while Toshi merely stood there, completely emotionless.

"Who the hell are you?" Kyoia asked sniffing and glaring side longingly at Kumiko. Kyoia hated information being withheld from her and Kumiko hoped her apology had shined threw in her own eyes as she returned the glance. To be honest she had forgotten all about meeting the Konohagakure team the day before.

"Uh..." Sakura bit her lip looking intimidated, glancing at the emotionless Kumiko. "What happened to your teammates?" Sasuke asked glaring, as Kumiko had discovered was his usual. Kumiko's gaze remained level._'Come on! Think of something...'_

"We're her teammates." Toshi stated.

"No you're not! We met them yesterday, you're not Mitsu!" naruto obnoxiously yelled pointing at Kyoia who started before glaring again "And you're not Takeo!" He finished pointing at Toshi who tilted his head and smirked. He took a step forward causing Sakura to flinch and cower slightly.

"You know..." Toshi ventured taking another step and making Sasuke get all defensive. "You're nosy." His smirk snapped from his lips and was replaced with a thin line. _Maybe I can get away without saying anything..._ Kumiko though urgently, turning on her heel. "Kyoia. Toshi. Let's go, don't waste your time." She took a few steps, hoping the other genin would just shut up and let them walk away, but her hopes were dashed. "You never answered my question!" Sasuke called after her and she stopped.

Well, she was left with no choice. She said the only thing that had come to mind, hating herself as the false words slipped through her lips dryly.

"They weren't good enough."

XxX

Finally, after a few more minutes of searching the three finally stumbled upon the correct door, though the didn't look nearly prepared as they entered. Kumiko hadn't been herself since she had said those four stupid words, Kyoia had noted as the approached a table that already had another genin team lounging on it. The other genin team was from Sunagakure.

There was a dirty blond girl with four pigtails, a boy completely hooded in black and a redhead with the love kanji tattooed on his forehead. Kumiko stopped dead when she seen them, hesitated and then continued to walk forward, much to the surprise of the girl and the hooded boy. She sat down abruptly across from them and the red head returned her stare. Kyoia and Toshi hovered behind her questioningly but she snapped her fingers at them as a signal to sit down, Kyoia growling grudgingly before doing what she was _asked_.

There was silence.

"So Kumiko. You have anymore little friends we should know about?" kyoia asked as if the sand team wasn't there. Hey they were from Suna right? Kyoia assumed they knew at least a little about the previous nights events.

"No. Only that team we met back there and these people. Though I wouldn't call any them friends nor acquaintances." Her voice was level as she stared at the ceiling, arms crossed across her chest and she slumped in her seat. "I assume you three know of last night's events concerning our nations." Toshi stated very quietly, it was barely whisper and his two teammates who were sitting the closest found themselves straining to here.

"Yes." The redhead said that one word and Kyoia felt a shiver of natural human fear slither up her spine. Only Kyoia wasn't like most people. She didn't become afraid easily; in fact that chill had given her some sort of sick and twisted thrill. A frightening grin sprung to the girls face and her pupils diluted, to her this guy sounded like her type.

A sadist.

The redhead's teammates were eyeing Kyoia carefully now, attempting to figure out why this girl was purposely bringing herself closer to death. The redhead merely stared back into her green eyes, a slight flicker of curiosity entering his gaze. It was the hooded boy who broke the silence.

"I thought that the Mist would have pulled out all of their teams." He said causing Kyoia to break her interpretive stare and turn to look at him. "Kirigakure was able to keep one team in the exams on the condition we don't interfere." Toshi smirked and continued where Kyoia had left off. "In order to make sure the team was able to complete this task, which has been classified as an A ranked mission, he took the three strongest genin in the village and placed them on one team." Kumiko sat up straight now bringing her gaze to meet the girl Sunagakure genin's.

"We are said team. You met my old team but I believe you are not acquainted with my new one. This is Kyoia Satoshai," she gestured to Kyoia who's grin only became creepier "and Toshi Nekonasai." Toshi nodded and the redheads teammates nodded back a little dumbly at the light introduction. "And this is Tamari, Kankuro and Gaara Subaku."

XxX


	6. The First Exam: Cheater, Cheater!

Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 5~

The First Exam: Cheater, Cheater!

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO.**

Kumiko slowly opened her eyes and glared side longingly in the direction of the loud disruption. It was a group of genin from the leaf, Naruto and his teammates among them. She slid her eyes away. Looking at them reminded her of the lie she had told them, about Takeo and Mitsu not being good enough. It wasn't the fact that she had told a lie that bothered her; it was the lie in itself. She wished her other two teammates were here with her now.

Mitsu would be scoping out future boyfriends. Kyoia seemed to be scoping out future victims for some sick, twisted thing she was planning.

Takeo would be off causing a disruption. Toshi was sitting beside her quietly; pondering the meaning of life or whatever the hell it was he thought about.

They had left the company of the Suna team a few moments ago and she found her mind wandering again. OR AT LEAST SHE WAS TRYING TO LET HER MIND WANDER! But those stupid rookies wouldn't shut up! She let a mild throaty growl escape her lips, causing her two teammates to look at her questioningly.

"SASUKE!" A fangirly voice screamed and Kyoia froze, she turned to glare at the growing by the second group of rookies as well.

"I. Hate. FANGIRLS." Kyoia's voice was strained, like nails on a chalk board. She began cursing colourfully and Toshi chuckled at her causing her to snap out of her irritated stupor and whack him upside the head. "It's not funny you jerk!" Kyoia snapped crossing her arms. Kumiko felt her lips curve up into a barely noticeable smile. Okay so maybe these guys weren't all bad, but she still missed her old team.

The leaf genin got louder and she frowned and turned to glare obviously. She noticed the Uchiha boy turn and meet her gaze but then he looked away quickly as the blond female distracted him again. The brunette narrowed her green eyes.

There was so much hatred in that kid; she'd existed long enough to know when one's eyes shone with hatred. She'd seen it in her previous partner's eyes before he had..._**no. Stop thinking about it Kumiko. You're immortal. If you start thinking about it now you'll never stop and then it will haunt you for eternity and you will beg for the death in which you cannot posses. Forget and stop thinking about it. Take it from me Kumiko Stiller, I have existed for hundreds of years before the human race, I know. Many have fought with me, many have loved me and many have betrayed me. I know it is hard for you, but you MUST forget. It is the only option you have if you do not want to spend eternity miserable.**_

Kumiko tapped her fingers subconsciously on the table. She could hear Matsuro's words as if she was speaking to her now...those words that were meant to be so encouraging, but in the end only made things confusing. How was she supposed to forget? After what he had done to her...to Matsuro, to everyone who had loved and cared about him, but most of all to her.

"Hey, Kumiko?" Kumiko blinked a couple times before glancing in the direction of the voice. It was Kyoia, who for the first time since she had met her was looking concerned. "You okay? You zoned out totally. There was this big commotion up front with some sound ninja and this silver haired dude and you auto piloted through it completely. Oh and the whole time," she gestured towards a group of Ame genin, one guy in particular stood out, "that guy's been checking you out." He was tall, with lilac eyes and dark blue, almost black hair.

Those lilac eyes...His teammates were now staring at her as well and she shifted uncomfortably.

"Alright all of you listen up!" Her eyes snapped towards who she assumed was the proctor of the first exam, she admitted she was somewhat startled. "Oh yeah...and that weirdo popped up too. Said his name was...er,...Kiki Marina or somethin' along those lines." Kyoia struggled to come up with a name.

"Ibiki Morino." Toshi drawled, his head still facing the direction of the rookie Konoha genin.

"Yeeah. Him." Kyoia said obviously bored with the conversation now. _Note to self,_ Kumiko thought,_Kyoia gets bored easily._ Ibiki went on to explain how they were each going to receive a seat number, take a test in exchange for their permission forms, and take the test.

So Kumiko dug through her pockets and pulled out the sheet that was her registration form, noticing her new teammates and sensei's names were now scribed down neatly. Her thumb rubbing over Kyoia and Toshi's names. No matter how much she missed her old team, Toshi and Kyoia were her team now. She would have to work and serve with them like she had known them from the start. She would make the village proud.

This was her mission.

She glanced down at her number 175. She bit her lip at the ironic number and then went searching for her seat near the back. She was surprised at how many seats they could fit in this damn classroom. She found her seat at the very back, the board barely visible from her vantage point; the fact that she was short wasn't helping either. She took the time to observe the hundreds of examiners that sat around the room with clip boards in their hands, eyes ever calculating.

Because she sat at the back of the room, there were proctors that, not only were along the walls beside her, but the wall behind her as well. Kumiko felt a little trapped. She glanced around finding Toshi in a seat at the very front, next to that Naruto kid and she found Kyoia lounging lazily next to that Gaara boy from the sand.

She stiffened as she felt someone stop beside her and slide into the seat and she turned her gaze to meet the other person's slowly. Bright green clashed dangerously with lilac.

XxX (What's Kyo-chan and Oshi-kun up to? Cuz u know u love 'em! ^.^)

_14...14...14...14...where the hell is 14! I don't even see a 16 or a 15!_ Kyoia glared around and finally gave up. She plunked herself down in the nearest seat she could find, which happened to be beside a certain redheaded sand nin. He turned to look at her, blinking silently at the number 14 in her hands and then at the number 23 on the desk.

"What?" She questioned "I couldn't find it." He merely turned slowly to look straight forward again. There was a tap on Kyoia's shoulder and she glanced up to see a bulky looking guy standing there. The number 23 in his hands.

"I believe that's my seat." He said calmly.

"Nope, it's not." Kyoia said and the guy twitched. "It's my seat. But it appears that the gentlemen at the front have given me the wrong number. Would you, perhaps, like to trade with me?" The guy looked really irritated.

Kyoia didn't want to cause a scene, which would make Kumiko and Toshi mad at her. "On second thought, you can sit here. It's just, a quick warning..." she looked back and forth and leaned into whisper to the guy "you see the redhead behind me? I saw him eat someone yesterday because he was irritated that they were sneezing. Just for sneezing." She glanced back at Gaara. "Do you perhaps, have a cold today? An allergy to dust maybe...? 'Cause it's really dusty around here and..." apparently while she was whispering Gaara had turned to look at them, face devoid of all emotion and scared the living crap out of the dude because suddenly, he was gone.

The number 14 wrenched from her hand and the number 23, ah the beautiful number 23; still spinning from where it had been dropped on the ground. She reached down to pick it up and went back to her seat whistling away, plunking down to await the rest of the exam. Unaware of a certain redhead's once in a lifetime, curious gaze.

XxX (OMG Kyoia, OMG.)

Toshi growled in annoyance when his ultra sound picked up a familiar shape. What was that kids name? Anyways, that what's his face kid was really annoying and they happened to be sitting right next to each other for the rest of the exam. Toshi silently sat down.

"You again!" The obnoxious boy shouted pointing at him, this caused everyone in the nearest vicinity to look at the two of them. That was it. Toshi was done. He grabbed the kid by the collar of what felt like a jumpsuit and pulled him so that they were face to face.

"Listen kid. I'm here to take an exam, same as everyone else. Sit down, shut up and don't fucking say a word to me for the rest of this damn thing or I will beat you so hard your brains will leak out your fucking ears." The kid seemed to wilt in his grasp and leaned away muttering words of rebuttal.

Needless to say Toshi received no more problems from Naruto.

XxX (O.O Gasp! Toshi has a mean streak! Back to Kumi-chan! ^.^)

Damn it. Why him? A guy with such eerie lilac eyes so similar to...NO! Stop thinking about it! Remember what Matsuro said? Yes. Stop thinking about it...She took a deep breath and peeked at the guy beside her. He was looking at the board.

Apparently, Ibiki was explaining something.

But Kumiko couldn't hear very well, nor could she see the black board on the horizon. Damn not training her hearing when Kojuro-sensei told her too. The other guy didn't seem to be having any problems. She didn't notice that she let her frustration slip onto her face, but she must have because next thing she knew a note was very cautiously being slid into her hand. She glanced at the guy before opening it. It read;

_Don't get fucking caught._

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Was someone after her? She sent a questioning glance at the guy, who had started his test and was ignoring her now. She flipped open her page and wrote down her name, though other than that she couldn't even put a mark on the paper.

It was all very complex.

Too complex for even her sensei, she came to that conclusion, though her sensei wasn't much of a paper test person. She started. _Don't get fucking caught_. It all makes sense now. The point of this test is to cheat...and not get caught...but how to cheat? Kumiko's mind riffled through her jutsu. Summoning jutsu. It's the only one that could be remotely affective.

She put her head down on her desk like she was frustrated, head hidden from all view but she was able to see her legs under the table and the bench in which she was sitting on. She bit her thumb and then slammed it quietly down on the bench, a seal appearing and a tiny pop of smoke. Then there was nothing. Nothing but a little black scrap of fur about the size of the palm of Kumiko's hand.

"Mishi, do me a favour?"

XxX (Who or what is a Mishi? Kyo-chan time! ^.^)

_Jeez Marina, kiki or whatever your name is. Why the hell did you have to make this so complicated? Sneaky shit ain't my style..._Kyoia thought as she watched Gaara crush a little sand eyeball.

It was true. All of Kyoia's jutsu were loud, big and...Well anything but subtle.

_Hmmm...I wonder...Wind possession jutsu maybe?_Kyoia bit her own lip, hard, smiling as he felt the blood begin to flow, then she subtly let the blood run onto the end of her pencil, smearing it casually. Then she did a few hand seals under the table and smirked. She looked down at her paper but was secretly looking at the guy beside her.

Not the redheaded sadist, the other one.

Number 24.

XxX(O.O Kyoia...u are mean. Oshi-kun time! )

Toshi had guessed the meaning of this test from the very beginning. Right after Ibiki had explained the three rules he knew it.

It was like a game he used to play with his mother before she had...died. She'd write down a sentence on a piece of paper and Toshi would have to find the hidden meaning. What was written in between the lines, if you will.

This was just like that game.

You had to decipher the hidden meaning that was written in those rules. The meaning was simple; _Cheat, don't get caught or you and your teammates fail._ The only question was...what do you do about it?

Toshi was a poisons master. Subtle was his thing, silent killer. However, he didn't know if he had a jutsu in his arsenal that could help him gather information. No. He had summoning jutsu but Ibiki would notice...he was standing only about 5 ft away. Maybe...he'd have to use it.

The Nekonasai clan's kekkei genkai, _**Third technique: Echo Mind Scan. Activate!**_

XxX (Echo mind scan...sounds scary. No smiley for this one...Now back to Kumiko! AND A TIME SKIP)

Kumiko sighed content. She was finished, and by the looks of it so was the guy beside her. Mishi was nuzzled into her neck, barely visible and hidden by her long brown locks.

She had explained to him the whole situation, right from arriving with her normal team, meeting Gaara and Naruto, her thoughts on them, last night and getting her new team. Mishi was the one being who knew everything about her, well Mishi and Nikko, her other favourite summons. They knew of her reaper past, her goals, her feelings, Matsuro and about..._him._

"Mishi," she whispered and the little kitten looked up at her with big yellow eyes.

"Yeah, boss?"

"How were Kyoia and Toshi doing when you passed them?"

"From the looks of things they were doing great. I think Toshi was a question away from being done and Kyoia was about half way done. That was 5 minutes ago. Toshi should be done by now and Kyoia should be almost there."

"It's about 15 minutes in. We have about 45 minutes left." She glanced at the guy beside her who was looking at her again.

"What's with him?" Mishi asked curiously in Kumiko's ear, noticing him staring.

"I don't know." Kumiko said, her voice airy and barely a whisper.

"He's been watching me for awhile."

"Maybe he thinks you're hot boss." Mishi said casually and she glared at the kitten.

"Well, If you don't need anything else boss, I'll get going. Big brother is probably worried about me."

"See you Mishi." The kitten 'poofed' away and Kumiko leaned back in her seat. Picking up her paper once more she looked to the bottom of the page. _I wonder...what the tenth question is._

XxX (KYO- CHAN!)

_Well I'm done._ Kyoia thought resting her head on her hands. It was so easy to use her wind possession jutsu. A flick of the pencil and her neighbour's paper would fly up at the corners and show her the answers. She copied the down et voila! Instant test.

She had to resist the urge to laugh every time the guy had attempted to keep the paper down. About half way through though one of the examiners had gotten suspicious, pencil ready to write her up but she had stopped for a few minutes and moved on to the girl in front of her, who was short enough that Kyoia could see right over her head and at the trying to fly away paper.

But one thing was frustrating her, what was this tenth question?

XxX (hehe! Kyoia's so resourceful! I FEEL LIKE A CANDY RAPPER IN AN UPDRAFT!)

Toshi froze as a kunai whipped past him, in between him and the obnoxious dweeb, and embedded itself in the desk behind them.

_And so it begins...It was only a matter of time before people started getting caught._

Toshi had already finished his test and was resting in anticipation of the 10th question, seeing as how using the third technique had drained more than 3 quarters of his chakra and he had a massive head ache.

To make matters worse the guy behind him started yelling about 'proof' or whatever. He was growing irritated, finally his teammates dragged him away. But after that it was an endless stream of genin being called to leave.

An endless stream of _noise_.

XxX

**what's with kumi-chan and lilac eyes? What happened that she shouldn't think about? Will Toshi get rid of his headache? Will Kyoia ever stop hurting herself? Does blood come off of pencils? And why does everyone keep staring at Kumiko?**

**REVIEW.**


	7. Lilac Eyed Fiend

Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 6~

Lilac Eyed Fiend

**I don't own Naruto.**

Toshi P.O.V

"You have to decide whether or not to take the 10th question. If you leave now, you will be able to take the exams again next year. However, if you choose to take the 10th question and fail, you and your team will not be able to participate in the exams ever again." Toshi quirked an eyebrow, but his expression was hidden from view thanks to his forehead protector. _It's the impossible question, you either fail or you fail..._Toshi thought.

Kyoia P.O.V

_C'mon Kyoia! Think! There has to be a loop hole somewhere. There is no way that Konoha would invite people from distant countries to an exam they had no chance in passing...it would be a waste of time and effort..._Kyoia thought.

Kumiko P.O.V

_They couldn't risk it! It would piss way to many people off anyhow...the real question...is...do you have the backbone to take chances! That's it, Kumiko! We need to show them we're willing to-_

All P.O.V

_**Take chances!**_ All three thought at once.

XxX

Kumiko slid her eyes around the room. Slowly people began putting their hands up, surrendering. Thankfully none of them were Kyoia or Toshi, who she was able to see clearly because of the lack of people. Without much of a hesitation the lilac eyed boy next to her raised his hand and then stood up and left, two others trailing behind him, all three completely silent.

This confused Kumiko. Why would he quit? She knew he was smart enough to understand the impossible question, so why did he put up his hand? She stared at the door even long after the lilac-eyed boy had left. She felt a hand on her shoulder and slowly tore her gaze away from the door slowly lifting them to meet Kyoia's strange bright green orbs.

"Yo! You zoned out again. Ready to go?" Kumiko furrowed her eyebrows.

"Did one of you...put up your hands?" Kyoia grinned carelessly and let out a loud crusty laugh. "We passed." Toshi stated a small smile forming on his lips, rare but true. That's one thing she had begun to like about Toshi. She liked how that, even though his expressions and emotions were rare, they were true. There was nothing fake about his emotions.

"When's the next exam then?" Kyoia smiled at the question. "Some freaky chick-" Toshi broke in. "That could possibly be Kyoia's long lost sister. Crazy woman...with a capital C."

"Thank you Toshi Nekonasai."

"You're very welcome Kyoia Satoshai." They each emphasized each other's names as they glared at each other.

"Guys? Some freaky chick?" Kumiko asked curiously.

"Oh, yeah right. Sorry. Anyways some freaky chick burst through the window superwoman style. She said we have to meet tomorrow at 6:00 am at some place called theeee" she searched for it with a confused look on her face "...forest of death, yeah, forest of death." Kumiko resisted the urge to sweatdrop. She said it so casually. Kumiko sighed at her teammates before standing up wearily.

"C'mon. I'm hungry and tired." She grumbled before walking out the door Kyoia and Toshi following close behind.

XxX

They had found their way to a ramen stand called 'Ichiraku's Ramen' which Kumiko had stumbled upon with Mitsu and Takeo a day earlier. It was a small stand, with only a few stools but the ramen smelled sooo good.

"Ooh! The spicy pork ramen looks good! I'll have that and make it as big as you got!" Kyoia ordered heartily, she reminded Kumiko of a drunk at a bar. Loudly ordering and showing of how much he could drink, or in Yo-chan's case, eat.

"I don't care, whatever you think is best. But make it smaller then the pig's." Toshi said, and the man nodded. Kyoia twitched and started trying to impale him with her chopsticks.

"I'll have the same as my female friend's. A small size please." She ordered politely before glancing over at her fighting teammates and giggling at the look on Toshi's face when Kyoia accidently shoved her chopstick up his nose. The ramen was placed in front of them and Kyoia glanced from it to the soiled chopstick before throwing it carelessly behind her.

They ate happily for the next 10 minutes or so, talking about their mission's, family, old teams and other shinobi things. Kyoia bragged about the accuracy of her bladed fan while Toshi told her it couldn't possibly be as accurate as his wonderful poisoned katana. Kumiko mainly stayed out of their playful banter. She caught sight of something familiar out of the corner of her eye and she twitched.

Blond, orange, blue, black, pink and red.

It was the orange clad wonder and his team. He froze when he saw the Kiri team. "You!" He shouted and Kyoia, whom hadn't noticed them, choked on her ramen in surprise.

"What the hell do you want, you obnoxious brat?" She asked taking a sip of her water, most likely to clear out that tickling sensation in your throat you get after you cough or choke. "You owe me an explanation!" The blond shouted at Kumiko.

"Naruto..." The pinkette beside him scowled, probably upset at the fight he was picking.

"Excuse me sir?" She asked the confused man behind the counter. "Could you please package up the rest of our ramen to go? I believe we are no longer able to eat peacefully." The man nodded and took their bowls into the back of the stand to package it up.

"Hey, are you even listening to me? You owe me an-"

"I owe you nothing!" She growled deep in her throat and was aware of how animalistic she sounded.

"Kyoia, Toshi. I'm going back to the hotel. See you, and our ramen, there." She murmured before leaving the area and walking down the busy street. She was surprised at how constantly busy this village was, Kirigakure was twice as big and never this busy. Maybe it was because of how nice the weather was.

It was always so sunny and warm here...Kumiko hated it. She actually missed the cold snows of the northern water country, the damp misty marshes of the west, the beautiful lakes and interconnecting streams of the east and occasionally the tropical but cool beaches of southern water country.

Kirigakure was right in the middle, the perfect spot. However it made the weather the most unpredictable you'd ever seen. One day it could be snowy outside, the white fluff covering the pine trees and roads, the next it could be bright and sunny, the snow completely gone. She ducked into a nearby ally, glaring at the ground. Why is it that there was always something wrong? Why was it she was never allowed to be completely happy?

"Kumiko Stiller." She tensed as it wasn't a question, it was a certain 'I know who you are' tone.

Stiller...

No one had called her by her real last name for over 100 years. She glanced up to see the boy from before. The one with the lilac eyes.

"I have been sent by my master." Damn. She should have known he was a fiend! A creation of Jashin, the lilac eyes said it all.

"Why? I am a creation of Matsuro, not a creation of Jashin." She protested. "What does he want from me now?"

"He wants you to know, that you have entered the dimension of his birth and will discover many of his followers. Even one with the power to make you show weakness and sacrifice everything."

"Is that a warning or a threat?" She growled. She received no reply before he then exploded into a mass of violet coloured worms that wriggled their way into the ground. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. Why was he contacting her after all these years and why use a fiend to do it?

"Whoa! What the hell was that!" Kumiko started and turned towards the familiar voice. Kyoia stood there a partially chewed to death chopstick hanging out of her mouth.

"What did you hear? What did you see?" Kumiko asked quickly, afraid. Matsurians and Jashinists preferred their secrecy, especially when said Matsurian was an actual creation of her, a reaper in disguise.

"I-I followed after you as soon as you left. Heard something about you being some kind of creation and followers of 'Jashin', whoever the hell that is and then that guy turned into a bunch o' worms." Kyoia babbled. She may be a hot-head, but she could obviously tell when she had heard something she shouldn't. She knew whatever it was she just heard, was top secret.

"Kyoia Satoshai...what do you know about gods?"


	8. That Place, That Man, That Time

Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 7~

That Place, That Man, That Time

**I don't own Naruto.**

**In news I have a new story up called Sugar and Spice~**

**Please read it and see if you like. It's ItachixOC. I've been told by the grand total of 1 reviewer that my character is very down to earth and believable, so if you like non-mary sues (which I try my best to make all of my charries like) my guess is that is a good story to read. I'm naturally bias, I'm the authoress, so the only way to tell would be to read it.**

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Kumiko winced at her new sensei's cold voice. She had told Yo-chan and Toshi, who had insisted she tell their sensei. They had all, surprisingly believed her story. She thought that something so otherworldly and complex would be too much for the mortal human's mind to comprehend. "I've heard the religious legends of Matsuro, Jashin and Kantis, though I didn't think they were real..." He said and Kumiko quirked an eyebrow. So he'd heard the legends eh...? "What do you know about it, if I may, Hiro-sensei?" She asked politely.

"I know that Matsurians, such as yourself, ferry souls to the other two plains of existence, Kantis's plain, which is heaven and Jashin's plain, which is hell. Sometimes they are re-born onto earth in order to renew their strength, otherwise they will fade." Kumiko nodded, satisfied with the answer. "That's all you need to know."

"Wait so...you're like...an old woman?" Kumiko twitched. "I AM NOT OLD!" She screeched whacking Kyoia in the head with her scythe. Hiro-sensei sighed and said goodnight before going to his room. They were in a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite which gave everyone their space. Toshi simply sighed before disappearing into his room at the end of the hall.

Kyoia groaned, saying a brief good night and headed to hers. Kumiko merely stood there for a moment. Well...her secret was out now. Kumiko felt a little lighter inside, although she knew of the danger she just put herself in. But, there was no use crying over spilt milk. So she went to her room and changed into a pair of black baggy sweats and a plain, black tank top before crawling into bed and falling asleep.

_~Dreamland~_

_Dimension 4 was a dimension that consisted of large, endless grass plains that you could walk for an eternity and never get to the edge and a single tree. No other plants, or animals, or people or even rocks. The tree appeared untouched by time, the picture of perfection. It had a dull silver trunk and branches, with shimmering golden leaves that never fell. You would not be able to tell the trees species if not for the perfect, blood red apples that were nestled in the sea of gold. The sky of this dimension had always been frozen in a cloudless, orange and yellow sunset that permanently basked the dimension in a citrus glow._

_A lone man was perched on one of the tree's top branches lazily, his back braced up against the thick trunk. He had shoulder length, shaggy silver-white hair and stunning lilac eyes that were as cold as ice. They were distant also today, as he stared off into the brilliant sunset, a twinge of sorrow glazed them and made them appear sightless. He was dressed in all black from head to toe, his toe being tall black combat boots, and over that ensemble he wore a long black hooded cloak that had rips and tatters on the bottom. Below him, a three bladed scythe was leaning up against the bottom of the tree trunk, glinting in the orangey glow._

_He heard a rustling beside him and with out turning his head he addressed the intruder, who if it weren't for the tree trunk separating them, they would be back to back. 'Kumiko.' His voice was warm but at the same time full of sadness. It was a petite woman with vivid green eyes. Her hair was chest length and chocolate brown with caramel blond highlights and side bangs that hid her left eye from view. She was dressed exactly the same as him, minus the ripped and torn cloak._

'_Why do you always come here?' She asked quietly in an amused manner._

'_Why do you always follow me here?' His response was less than amused, almost bitter and the woman stilled a flinch. 'You know the reason.' She pointed out with a sigh. It was now his turn to sigh. 'I suppose I do...'_

'_You...suppose?' She had now daintily slid around the trunk and was standing in front of him on the same branch. She crouched down and crawled forward on her hands and knees and up onto his lap, but he never turned to look at her. She took his head gently in her hands and kissed him chastely, before pulling back slowly. He was now looking at her and for the first time she saw the pain in their lilac depths._

'_What's wrong? I can tell when you're troubled.' She let her hand caress lightly over his cheek, but when she went to move her hand away he grabbed her by the wrist and held it in place._

'_Kumiko, tell me you love me.' There was a deep pleading in his eyes as he looked at her._

'_I love you.' She said sincerely, kissing the back of the hand which held hers in place._

'_Tell me you'll love me forever...even if you can no longer see me.' She was startled by the desperation in his voice, but all the same she gave him a loving smile._

'_I will love you forever, even if I can no longer see you, touch you, hear your beautiful voice or smell your comforting scent. I will love you even after Armageddon knocks down the walls around me. I would love you...even if you were Armageddon, holding a knife to my throat.' Being a reaper, Armageddon would be like the end of the world. Her species would cease to exist as all the gods would fight each other, sacrificing their minions in an attempt to get the upper hand._

'_How?'_

'_How what?'_

'_How can you love me? Someone so beautiful and perfect as yourself?' Kumiko was silent for a moment._

'_I can love you because I can. It is in my heart, I have love to give. If you want to know__**why**__it is that I love you...I honestly couldn't answer that. I love everything about you...and I don't know for sure why...maybe someday, when we've spent a few more millenniums together, I'll be able to answer it.'_

'_You won't get the chance...' He mumbled and she raised an eyebrow and confusion, her hand was now released from his grip and she used it to clamp onto his shoulder affectionately. 'What are you...? Please, tell me what's wrong...' He brought her closer to him so he could nuzzle her neck, his arms wrapped around her waist._

'_Kumiko, I love you.' Those words made her heart leap for joy, but before she could reply she heard him speak again. But this time his words were far from pleasing. 'I'm leaving. We cannot be together anymore...'_

_~End Dream~_

Kumiko bolted up out of bead, tears streaming down her cheeks and she resisted the urge to sob.

Why was everything falling apart? Why was she remembering these things? Why was Jashin suddenly sending fiends to contact her? Why hadn't Matsuro contacted her?

"Hey, Kumiko!" She heard Kyoia outside her door, knocking ferociously. "C'mon, breakfast is ready and then we have to go to the next part of the exam!" Kumiko took a moment to still her breathing, before crawling out of bed and readying herself for the next part of the exam.


	9. The Second Exam Begins

Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 8~

The Second Exam Begins: Kumiko's Risky Strategy!

**I don't own naruto.**

**HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL! My new years resolution is to write more because I am lazy.**

The forest of death was...interesting.

The three Kirigakure genin stood before it, glaring up at the extremely tall trees and deep thick undergrowth. A snake, that Kumiko almost mistook for a demon because of its size, snapped up an innocent bird. She heard a light snicker behind her and glanced curiously at her two teammates. "Wow Kyoia. A family reunion. A crazy sister and your mother, I can see where you get your looks from." Kyoia growled a quick 'shut up!' in response, her large black pupils growing smaller with rage. Kumiko sighed and glanced back over to the proctor with a bored expression.

She couldn't believe she trusted _those two_, whom she had only known for 1 day and a couple hours, with her inner most secrets.

She supposed it wasn't a big deal; it wasn't a law that humans couldn't know you existed and anyone that wanted to find her probably could, as demonstrated by Jashin earlier. But she would have preferred that it had been a secret, as now she would be a target to be challenged by any other Matsurian or Jashinist in this dimension, should word get out of course. The two weren't acting that different around her though, which made her..._content_.

Still, she would have preferred that everyone think she was just a normal human being like everyone else...Stupid Jashin, he ruins everything. He had already ruined her life once and then he sends that fiend to find her only to deliver a stupid undecipherable message, and when it got seen she had to reveal everything. It's all Jashin's fault.

The team from earlier, the one with the blond idiot on it, was standing a few feet in front of her. The blond idiot, as usual, was shouting obnoxiously and causing a scene. A kunai suddenly landed between herself and the grass ninja who was standing beside her only a few inches away, as they happened to be standing in one of the most crowded areas. She surveyed the damage the blade had done. It had grazed the arrogant blond's cheek and had affectively slit a lock from a strange looking grass ninja's hair. Something was off about that grass ninja...it was a female, but the soul energy was that of a male.

Transvestite?

No...that concept didn't really exist in this dimension, or from what she had seen it didn't. Slightly freaked out with the transvestite she turned her attention back to the blond to find the proctor was now behind him, threatening him and bringing a finger up to slyly brush the blood from his cheek.

Great! A transvestite, a plum haired snake in disguise, the king of obnoxiousness and the freaky forest. She began to think of the 'Old McDonald had a Farm' song except substituted it with 'Old Hokage had a Village'. It fit quite nicely and had quite the ring to it, she decided. She couldn't hear the hushed words shared between Anko and Naruto and once again cursed herself for not training her hearing better.

"Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest!" Anko sang a little louder as if to warn against anyone else becoming a smart ass. She could tell the proctor meant him no harm other than that minor scratch but when the grass ninja was on the move she stiffened. She felt a need to slightly assist the poor leaf rookie and so she took a couple steps closer, much faster and much more obviously than the grass ninja, who had paused at her movements.

Kumiko bent down and walked around the proctor and the orange clad wonder holding the kunai in the proctors face, distracting her from tormenting him any further. "Why thank you Mist ninja~" She sang happily. "Hm." Kumiko hummed, hoping to appear like she was thinking. "What was it you were saying Mitarashi-san before you were interrupted? My teammates and I are growing slightly impatient. Kyoia tends to get touchy when that happens." She whispered to the proctor, leaning down and resting an elbow on the slightly hunched over blonds head while the proctor took the same leisurely position on his upper back.

"Of course!" Anko said heartily standing up straight soon after. She walked back towards the front and all eyes followed her. Kumiko then removed her elbow from the blonds head and walked back to her spot next to her teammates, her fingernail gently caressing the boy's bloodied cheek. She then stuck the bloodied finger in her mouth as she silently walked away.

Kyoia twitched when Kumiko returned and smiled at the sight of her new teammate sucking the blood from her pointer finger. Something they had in common!

"Did you have to draw attention to us Kumiko? Or is this a part of one of your twisted plans...?" Toshi asked while smirking, not bothering to lower his voice.

"_Smart idea Toshi."_ Kumiko thought. _"Make everyone think we're a force to be reckoned with by making subtle comments like that...we'll repel the weaklings and attract those that are worthy. That'll make this test a lot more interesting."_Her response was a simple 'hn' while crossing her arms and lowering her head, although she couldn't hide the Cheshire grin that grew on her face.

XxX

Kyoia mumbled to herself as she looked over the paper with slight annoyance. How was she supposed to sign the damn thing? She didn't know she was supposed to carry a pen around in her undies...

She dropped to the ground, plunking down anxiously. 15 minutes later, there was a slight cough from above her and she looked up, grunting slightly in surprise when she seen it was the Sunagakure team from earlier. The blood thirsty redhead among them.

She raised an eyebrow, sniffing indignantly before looking back at her page. She was trying to ignore the blood thirsty chills that threatened to make her spine twitch. Something about that damn redhead...made her killing intent go haywire. But in a good way...was that possible? She tried to ignore another cough from the girl and twitched in annoyance when it continued. She peeked up over the paper and narrowed her eyes.

"You really need to do something about that throat...cough drop maybe? I'm fresh out but I bet you the King of Bastards (eheheh...Toshi -_-') has some. Go bother him." She flicked her hand at the girl nonchalantly.

"We want a truce for this part of the exam." It sounded more like a demand coming from the mouth of the hooded guy.

"That sounded like an order..." Kyoia trailed off standing up threateningly, although her shorter height was probably less than intimidating.

"It was. You should be grateful for the opportunity." The girl stated ignorantly. The younger black haired girl ignored her, the next sentence coming out with a slight growl.

"I don't like being ordered around...by people who haven't earned the privilege. Besides I don't know what Kumiko has planned yet, but I'm sure her plans don't involve you guys...unless it's your faces in the dirt. So...no." Enraged the hooded guy spoke again.

"Fine then! We'll just tear you and your little teammates apart in that forest, country alliance or not! It's not like you're needed for the-" He was silenced by a look from the redhead.

"Is that so? Well then...Good luck with that!" Kyoia laughed slightly while walking away and waving back at them, looking over her shoulder once to wink.

XxX

Kumiko hummed slightly to herself, her favourite song. It was a song from her old world called 'Dog and Butterfly' by an old rock band from her parent's era called 'Heart'.

She had already signed her paper and it was folded neatly and securely placed in her kunai pouch. Her hands were shoved carelessly into her pockets, her thumbs peeking out of the black denim. She had finally finished formulating the course of action her team was going to take.

It was risky...but in her opinion effective.

She just hoped that her team had no arguments with it. So now she was just milling about, exploring the outside of the forest and squinting to see anything helpful through the undergrowth. She seen nothing, only a seemingly endless tangled mass of leaves and brush. She frowned before closing her eyes and focusing on the other genins' spirit energy there were a few that seemed strong but there were a few that distinguished themselves.

That Uchiha, Subaku and even that Uzumaki kid...there was a deep inner strength within him...almost the same strength as the Subaku. Her eyes shot open in recognition.

Damn! She was going soft or something! How could she not recognize the spiritual energy of the thing she had been trained almost her entire existence to eliminate?

_...Demons._

XxX

Toshi was leaning up against a tree the form in his hands. A small, extremely rare smile lifted the corners of his mouth. _Give a form...to a person who cannot read it? That's kind of dumb..._ He wished he could use his echo location but it only worked on shapes.

He could use it to see the paper...but not what was written on it. It was possible, but Toshi had yet to master that technique as it was the best information gathering resource to have. It would enable him to read an enemies scroll without even being near it. His half brother had been going to teach him but Benjirou had gotten more ill...He heard footsteps and parted his mouth searching the area around himself.

A girl, who he had noticed yesterday.

She had been in that group of Konoha rookies that had the obnoxious kid among them and she had also been sitting on the opposite side of the obnoxious child during the first exam. She was quiet...and timid. She didn't seem to notice him as she stood on the opposite side of the tree trunk, her form studying the page as well.

"Hey what're you doing all the way out here?" Great...it's the obnoxious kid. He listened silently to the conversation and noted the girl's speech matched her disposition. He listened with mild amusment as she offered him some ointment for the cheek Mitarashi-san had cut. But it faded as the idiot ignored her and walked off. Toshi felt a wave of pity for the extremely shy girl.

"I guess...I'll just...save it for later then..." The girl whispered to herself but as she moved to put it away she dropped it. The round container rolled into one of Toshi's feet and he bent to pick it up lazily. He heard the girl start at the realization that he was there.

"U-um th-thank you." She said as he handed it back to her and she quickly pocketed it.

"You're quite welcome." He responded calmly, he thought for a moment before continuing. "Hey, could you do me a favour?" She shifted with slight discomfort.

"Um...Yes." He smiled at her shyness.

"Could you please point to the place on this paper I'm meant to sign? I can't see it." He used his ultrasound to see the girl glanced at him with a puzzled expression before pointing at the spot on the page. "Thank you. An..." he almost couldn't even use the expression. "An eye for an eye then..."

"U-um. I'm s-sorry but why didn't you just move your headband." Smirking he did so and pointed to his eyes and she heard her gasp. His eyes, he knew as his half-brother had once described his eyes to him, were steel blue, almost white and the black pupil looked slightly foggy, like his pupils were clear glass bulbs that someone had filled with smoke.

"It doesn't do much good." He said, resting his headband back down. In the distance he heard a proctor call everyone and tell them that it was time to collect their scrolls. "You had better get back to your team...I'm sure they'll wonder where you are. Thank you again for your help-"

"Hinata!" She burst out with not even a back tint of shyness. She shifted her head quickly to look at the ground. "I-I'm Hinata Hyuuga." He smirked. She was trying to show him some confidence...she didn't want an enemy ninja thinking she was weak.

"Toshi Nekonasai." He began walking in the direction he knew his teammates were in but stopped turning back to Hinata. He didn't know why but he felt the need to give her some advice.

"Trust no one. Be cautious of everyone and everything, even your teammates. Stay safe and good luck...Hinata."

XxX(Fluff~!...steel fluff since it's not really fluffy...steel wool! That's it...steel wool.)

"Alright," The guy behind the counter said "Who's taking the scroll?" The mist genin stood across from him and when he spoke Kumiko extended her hand expectantly. She was handed an earth scroll and she stuffed it down her shirt, hiding it amidst her cleavage before continuing out towards a free gate. Kyoia gave her a look. "What?"

Kyoia just rolled her eyes and followed her silently until she made it to the gate. "I didn't want to say anything out in the open but...you have a plan right?" They tried to ignore the chuunin standing outside the gate and converse like he was not present.

"Yeah. Are you listening? I'm only going to say this once and I'm going to say it quietly." The two nodded and watched as Kumiko did a few hand signals. Then, 3 cat summons 'poofed' into existence. The three of them were bengal cats (don't know what that is look it up 'Bengal Cat' on google images) only distinguished by the different colour ribbons around their necks.

One of them had a red ribbon, one of them had a navy blue ribbon and one of them sported a green ribbon. The ribbons were all tied behind their necks in big bows and all of the cats had tiny bells on the front, silver for the blue and green ribbons and gold for the red ribbon.

"Toshi, Kyoia meet the Sanbyakushimi triplets. Momo," She gestured to the red ribboned she-cat who gave a Cheshire-like grin. "Tomo" She gestured to the blue ribboned cat who nodded his broad head. "and Yomo." The green ribboned cat flicked its tail irritably.

"All of you listen up here's the plan. We get into the forest, hide the scroll and then split up. When you split up we'll each take a Sanbyakushimi triplet with us, because of their pelt they'll blend in with our surroundings. Not only that but the three of them can use telepathy so no matter what we'll be able to communicate between us. Once one of us obtains a heaven scroll, I'll collect the earth scroll again and we'll all meet outside the tower. Because we'll be meeting at the tower no one that comes across us while we're waiting for each other will want our scroll, seeing as they probably already have both scrolls. Tomo, you go with Toshi and Yomo I want you to go with Kyoia. You are to obey them as you would me. Kyoia, Toshi I trust you can operate on your own. I know this strategy is risky but I believe it will be effective." The gate door swung open and the three genin went in separate directions, the nin-cats beside them.

"I hope we get through this alright..." Kumiko commented to herself, scanning the forest floor.

"Do not worry Mistress, your friends smell intelligent and strong. My brothers trust them as do I. Have more faith in your comrades, even if they are new to you. Remember mistress, the nose knows." Momo, the soul female of the Sanbyakushimi triplets, soothed as she jumped from branch to branch beside her mistress, her golden bell surprisingly making no noise. Kumiko smirked.

"Alright, Momo. I've learned not to doubt your nose!" And with that the two disappeared into the forest above, both with the same excited green cat eyes and wearing the same Cheshire grins.

**Sanbyakushimi literally means "Three hundred spots" which makes sense if you know what a 'Bengal Cat' looks like. It happens to be my favourite breed of cat! Yes cats have breeds...**

**Small tidbit of info, they all have green cat eyes like Kumiko's.**


	10. Rumble In The Jungle Part 1: Wind

Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 9~

Rumble in the Jungle Part 1: Wind

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**THIS IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER I HAVE EVER WRITTEN. 4,025 WORDS~ I'M SO PROUD!**

xXx

Kyoia groaned slightly as she sat down underneath the twisted and gnarled tree. She hadn't seen anyone out here...and she'd been out here for a day already.

"What are you doing you useless human? Get up! We need to find the heaven scroll for Kumiko-hime! Do you want to disappoint her!" The raven haired girl twitched from her leisurely position on the ground before looking up to glare at the low hanging tree branch above her. Her own large pupiled emerald orbs, meeting another pair of green eyes.

Yet these were cat-like and identical to her new teammate, Kumiko Hanadeka's. Those eyes were connected to a leopard-like pelt and a long swishing tail, which happened to be as annoying as a bunch of fangirls tied up in a garbage bag next to the object of their affections.

"Shut it fluffy! I'm just taking a break okay? I've been on the move non-stop for the past day and a half and humans need rest you annoying fucking dust bunny!" The cat sniffed indignantly, its tail twitching with irritation.

"You have absolutely no stamina and no class! How Kumiko-hime could stand to have someone like you in their presence astonishes me!"

"Oi! Watch it tuna breath or you're going to be choking on your own tail for the next decade!"

"That's what I'm talking about! What kind of a lady makes such awful threats!"

"Well you ain't exactly a bouquet of gentlemanly roses either you ignorant, oversized ball of lint! Damn I hate cats..."

"Oh? And what's so wrong with cats?"

"You mean besides the fact they do their business in a box full of chemical filled gravel, shake it all over the floor then run off to the next room to lick their own buts?"

"I don't know what kind of undignified cat you're talking about, but I'm obviously not of that species. How undignified...Oh I see! You must be the humanoid equivalent of that!" Kyoia jumped to her feet and lunged at the feline with a 'why you little!', but she landed on her own knees and the cat sped away.

"Damn..." She went to get up but stopped, her eyes going wide. That damn cat had distracted her and now she had company. She was completely un prepared...

"Well on your knees already eh, brat? (1) We hadn't even shown our faces yet..." She rolled her eyes and looked up slowly her eyes traveling up until she met the familiar gazes of the Sunagakure team. Kankuro and Temari looked extremely satisfied with their catch, where as Gaara looked impassive as ever.

She looked down again, smirking when she noticed her palms were bleeding from where she had collapsed to the ground. Her smirk widened and she suddenly jumped back, springing up from her position and using all the muscles in her legs to propel her away from the 'to close for comfort' danger.

She was messing with the team earlier only because she had thought that she would have some source of back up if they ever showed up and she had doubted they would _actually_ waste their time tracking her down. She may be out numbered 3 to 1...but she wasn't easy prey and as soon as her feet connected with the ground again from her one-moved flight, she made a quick and barely noticeable hand seal as she grabbed for her Fan of Black Wind.

"Sooo..." She said buying time as she opened her fan behind her back, which was small enough to not be seen as it slowly spread its ruffled paper body. "You come here often?" She chuckled nervously, wiping her bloody palm across the black paper.

"Well Kankuro? You wanted to come after her, so you take her out!"

"Take me out? Like...to dinner? That would be so nice of you..." She trailed off as he growled and took the rapped mummy from his back. _"What the hell is that thing?"_ She thought, raising an eyebrow as the bandages suddenly ripped to shreds and a shadowy-like _thing_ jumped away and disappeared before Kyoia could catch a glimpse of it.

"_Damn it...now I have the feeling I'm out numbered 4 to 1..."_ She gulped, eyes darting around._"Where'd that stupid fur ball go anyway? That mange-bag took off right when I need it most!"_Suddenly there was a faint rustling behind her and she jumped to the side, rolling as she recovered once more. The 'mummy' had sprung from the bushes behind her blades aimed at her vital organs and now it was coming at her once more, it's what appeared to be wooden body making strange chattering noises as it approached.

"Let me introduce you to 'Karasu'." Kankuro smirked as this line left his mouth and Kyoia's now wide eyes met his again, then they trailed down his arms and to his subtly twitching fingers. She squinted to see the blue lines that stretched from his finger tips to 'Karasu'. Realization overtook her body. How did she not figure it out?

"Puppet..." She said as she dodged again, this time having to use one of her hands to steady herself. One of her former teammates, Yasuchika Onami, had used puppets. He carried his in scrolls though and...now that she looked closer, were far more impressive than Kankuro's 'Karasu'. Her personal favourite of Chika's was called the 'Suchiiru no Senshi'.

But now, she supposed as she dodged another of the wooden warrior's attacks, was not the time for reminiscing. Now how did she beat Chika...? Oh yeah, like this.

"Wind Expulsion Jutsu!" She felt the wind gathering around her in a tight threatening mass, then she released her and unclenched her fist just as Karasu made another jump for her, blowing the puppet into one of the nearby monster sized trees. The fragile in comparison Karasu's arms fell off and it had a large gash/crack through the center, making the puppet unstable. This broke the chakra strings and Kankuro fell to the ground defenceless and Kyoia ran at him about to aim a kick at his head, but was forced to dodge as wind was thrust in her direction.

"Oh please! You may be older than me, but your skills with wind manipulation pale in comparison to mine!" The raven haired girl growled out, pulling her fan out from behind her, the material now dripping grossly with hot, sticky blood. She ran the fan in front of her face before making a single and sign with her free hand.

"Bloody Wind Jutsu!" The blood on her fan suddenly exploded into the air, the blood creating little moon shaped streaks of blood swirling around in the wind. With as much effort as she could, Temari swung her own large fan, sending a massive shockwave of wind towards the smaller girl and blowing the jutsu away in the process.

Kyoia screamed with pain as she was flung back and she hit a nearby boulder, making a large dent in the stone. She collapsed to the ground, before standing up with a slight wobble. "What was that you were just saying?" Temari asked, causing Kyoia to start laughing.

Once Kyoia had calmed her laugh to a faint chuckle, she looked up and the three Sunagakure genin noticed her eyes had smaller pupils, right before she turned to water.

"Wh-what was that? A...A clone?" Temari stuttered, before her eyes widened and she went to turn quickly, only to have Kyoia behind her. The blades that had once been hidden amongst the folds of her fan were now unsheathed and pointed at the blond's neck. One of the middle blades had begun to carve into the elder girl's throat, releasing a small streak of blood from her punctured flesh. Then she was blown away from the Suna Kunoichi by a raging mass blood soaked sand.

She let out small screech as the sand pinned her to the ground nearby and she felt her breathing becoming quick and shallow. She watched out of the corner of her squinted eyes as Kankuro and Temari quickly scrambled to their feet.

Gaara approached her slowly and Kyoia began to struggle, but he only tightened his grip on her causing her to scream with pain.

"G-Gaara..." Temari began slowly but stopped when he snapped his head over to look at her.

"Shut up. You're weak. Leave my sight now." The two nodded sacredly and sent Kyoia an almost sympathetic and guilty look, almost as if they wished they had won so that the raven haired girl could be spared from this fate, before running off into the trees.

The grip on her torso tightened and she gurgled in her throat, feeling compressed blood beginning to well up.

"_Fuck! If I don't find a way out of this I'll be squashed like a bug!"_ She tilted her head to glance at her right arm, which had managed to escape the sand and she did a few hand symbols, channelling her chakra again. The wind once again began to surround her and she groaned as she fought the unconsciousness that began to creep up on her.

"_C'mon Kyoia! Keep your eyes open! You only have one hand so it's going to take slightly longer to perform the jutsu...just keep your eyes open. If you die here...what would Hiroshi-tou-san say...and Kenji-nii and Izo- nii too!"_The wind began to pick up more and she smiled when she felt the wind's pressure reach its peak.

"Wind Expulsion Jutsu!" The wind blew the constricting sand away from her in a chaotic explosion of sand, blood and raging air. At that moment, the red head showed more emotion than he had in years. His light teal eyes widened and his mouth parted slightly, when a normal person would have gaped, as the sand that was now released from his control was blown past him. He hated it. He hated her, he was going to destroy her.

Kyoia however, did not see this as she was currently trying to peel her now almost unbelievably exhausted body from the ground, air suddenly rushing back into her lounges. She finally managed it, clutching her arm in pain as she stood on wobbly legs. Something happened to the arm she had used for the one handed seals, it was immobile.

Realizing what she was doing, the sand must have tightened its grip on her but she had been in too much pain elsewhere to notice. As the dust cleared, it was replaced by an overbearing demonic killing intent, and with a pained expression she looked towards the source.

XXX

The jounin of the participating teams were gathered in the tower at the center of the forest. Hiro Yerinozuka among them, leaning up against a wall far away from the others. He sighed glancing around the room of unfamiliar faces, secretly wishing there was someone else from his village in which he could spend time with. The other jounin had broken off into groups of other jounin from their village also, preferring to not spend time with the senseis of genin who may be currently killing their own as they speak.

He frowned now, his eyes looking straight ahead of him but not seeing. He wondered if the number one genin in his village were fairing well, considering he knew nothing about them and they knew almost nothing about each other. He questioned the Mizukage's grace and intelligence for the first time since his mission as stand in sensei had begun.

"Hello there. Aren't you the sensei of the soul team from Kirigakure?" He blinked and swivelled his head to meet the gaze of a Konohagakure jounin with wild silver hair and a mask covering most of his face.

"That's correct."

"I've heard much about them from other jounin and genin alike."

"Oh? Why do I suspect none of it was good?" The other jounin chuckled and leaned up against the wall beside the Kirigakure Anbu in disguise. He knew this man and his presence was only calling forth memories he wished to forget.

"I remember you." The silver haired man stated and Hiro held his breath.

XXX

This was it.

This was the end of the line for her.

She was now once again trapped by sand, this time up against the same boulder she had flung Karasu against. However this time not even her immobile arm was out of the sand cocoon, she had completely and utterly failed.

She was going to die.

Even now though the adrenaline like chills the red head invoked from her now still ran up and down her spin. Her eyes were almost swollen shut, from the unavoidable tears of pain that she had attempted to stop from leaking out earlier as the red head's sand had ripped her still useable arm from her body. She no longer had the strength to keep her mouth closed as blood poured out the sides of her mouth, her breathing quick and desperate as her head lolled to the side in defeat.

She closed her eyes wishing for death, she knew more than one of her ribs had been destroyed. She was stupid really, to think she could be a match for him, he was stronger than Minoru Rawari. She couldn't stop the frown even at a time like this, only one of her final wishes had been fulfilled. She had two wishes for the day she died.

Number one, she wanted to die fighting.

Number two...she didn't want to die alone.

And at the moment her opponent didn't count. She was going to die alone, just like when she was brought into this world. Alone. As much as she hated to admit it the one thing she truly feared was loneliness.

Across the clearing, Gaara paused for a moment to stare at the destroyed human being before him. She wasn't screaming, she was not afraid of him even now and this made him stop to wonder about her.

**Do it.**

The voice said and he chose to ignore it temporarily, already knowing what it was the voice wanted to do. He was still gazing at her face, even at this moment it was angelic. He remembered watching the expressions on her face as she had fought his brother and sister, almost as if she was toying with them.

There was no hatred in her eyes when she had stood up with her broken arm only a mere 15 minutes ago, only a form of what could be described as a sick fascination. Whereas villagers who he had never personally harmed before hated him, she stood before him with a look of fascination and now he was mimicking that look in her eyes as he stood there gazing at her slowly failing body.

Curious as to why the assault had stopped she turned her head forward again, only to meet his deathly cold eyes. The eye contact resumed as he took a few steps closer to her, his eyes never leaving hers until he was standing directly in front of her.

He wanted...human contact.

To be honest, he had never touched another human being all his life, the closest he ever came to was the feel of their blood. Slowly and cautiously he reached a hand out and allowed it to hover a mere centimetre above the surprisingly untouched by battle skin of her left cheek. He hovered for what seemed like ages before he silently, brought the hand to glide over the smooth surface of her porcelain coloured skin.

She grunted slightly in surprise at the contact and she watched curiously as his eyes widened with wonder at the warmth of her skin. Somehow he always imagined human skin to be cold, like a stone floor as that often mimicked the smoothness of human flesh, or the way it appeared. Then his hand slid off the bottom of her chin, and he felt his hand come into contact with something wet. It was her tears of pain.

**Do it.**

The voice repeated impatiently as he took one step backwards. The voice continued until those two words became a violent chant circling around his head like a tornado of violent thoughts and feelings.

It was unbelievable how much the voice wanted her gone, and he went back to his earlier position, His hand outstretched and ready to compress her body as if it was nothing.

Suddenly realizing his mental state of confusion and anguish, she sensed an opportunity. Maybe she could talk her way out of it and if she couldn't succeed then she would maybe die a little faster. Either way, it's a win win situation. She was glad she understood the way of a confused mind, considering there were times she had one herself.

"Gaara-kun." She stated softly. It was a strange mix between a motherly croon and a desperate plead. She was nervous about adding the 'kun' but figured it may seem her come off more friendly.

XxX

"So...you remember me do you?" Hiro asked, gazing away from the Anbu.

"Yes...do you remember me? Captain Yerinozuka?" Hiro smirked with a less than amused chuckle.

"Unfortunately...Captain Hatake. I was hoping to forget." He heard the other man echo his own earlier chuckle, but with a bit more enthusiasm.

"How do you think your team will fare?" The Konoha jounin asked with sincere curiosity.

"Hm. There are some I worry about more than others however I still have confidence in them. You?" He turned to look at the other man who eye smiled back.

"My answer is the same as yours, and I'm sure the same can be said for most of the jounin here. But I believe that more than half of them will be disappointed." The last line had a slight malicious tint to it and Hiro was forced to remind himself just exactly who the man next to him was.

"Remember that day when you said you owed me one Hiro-san?"

"Like I said I've been trying to forget."

"Well now I believe it's about time to anti-up. Shall we find someplace more private to discuss this?" And then the silver haired man walked off and Hiro stared after him before righting himself with a slight sigh. They found an empty room with a single table in the center, looking almost as if it was used for interrogation. They both stepped in, snapping the door shut behind them and locking it before both sat down across from each other.

"I have two requests Yerinozuka. First, you tell me about your 'students'. Second, you tell me what your village is up to."

"I'll allow you the first; however I refuse the second although I do assure you my village is not up to anything that may harm yours. If I were you though...I would pay closer attention to the other villages, they pose more of a threat." Kakashi sighed, realizing that it would be too much to ask the man to betray his village like that.

"Alright then, tell me about your students. Start with the girl I've heard so much about, with the long black hair. Kyoia Satoshai, I believe. Last name sounds familiar..."

XxX

Gaara's eyes widened slightly at her tone and the chanting stopped abruptly, as if chased away by the voice.

No one...had ever...used such a tone on him. It was so soft; it blew past his ears like the girl's wind itself. The tone was secure and reassuring, safe, kind, gentle. Things he had never experienced before, his pressure on the sand faltered slightly.

The grains began to sprinkle off of the sandy mass, but the chanting began once more and his eyes narrowed. Above the chanting the voice said something even louder that did not need to be repeated.

**Do it now, don't you see? She's trying to trick you! She's not going to be**_**kind**_**to you; she'll just try to kill you like everyone else. She's just like everyone else! You must kill her first! No one loves you but me, no one can take care of you but I. Now destroy her before she hurts you!**

Gaara didn't want to believe it and he dropped the sand altogether in favour of clutching his head, this act freed the disabled Kyoia. She landed on her feet. But quickly stumbled and fell, landing with a muted thud on her stomach, her head at his feet.

This caught his attention and he stared down at her while still clutching his feuding head.

XxX

"She was born in a small village outside Sunagakure. She never had a father and her mother died giving birth to her, a kindly old woman raised her until she turned 4...you see. When she turned 4...Kyoia developed some...habits."

"Habits?"

XxX

She looked up at him. Hm...she wondered what would happen if...she tried again.

"Gaara-kun."

XxX

"The basics. Talking to herself, random fits of rage and she also tended to have seizures. She had a bit of an alter-ego. The old woman tried to find her help, but she died before she could find a suitable psychiatrist. The kid was on her own from then on...the villagers were afraid of her and called her a monster. When she was seven she was broughtto our village by Satoshai-sama, I don't know the exact story of what happened though. The name should sound familiar; he was the guy that was also with me that night...not the one that...you know...the other one I mean. That arrived afterwards. Anyway, he took her in trained her and got her some decent mental help and voila. However she wasn't mentally stable enough to actually attend the academy she still became a genin."

"Hn."

XxX

There it was again, that comforting sound and it was coming from the girl's mouth as she looked up at him, unusually calm, but shaking from her injuries. No! She was trying to trick him! The voice had said so and the voice was always right but he still didn't want to kill her.

XxX

"There are three top genin in my village and she is one of them. She has the wind element and unbelievably good control over it too."

"You said she was of the top three, could you place her for me?"

"Third place, sometimes second, depending on the day and how much she likes her opponent. A sadist in the making there. Now are we gonna linger on Satoshai or move on?"

"Alright...I believe there is one male member...Toshi Nekonasai."

XxX

Kyoia was suddenly picked up off the ground by what appeared to be sand gently flipped onto her back and moved under the shelter of a nearby cluster of trees that had grown to make what appeared to be a den.

She blinked up at the foliage as the sand scurried away, almost as if it were a bunch of living grains of sand. She heard footsteps approaching her and she gingerly moved her head to the side, trying to avoid pain, to stare at the approaching sandals of Gaara Subaku.

The sand returned to the vicinity with him and she blinked as the sand retreated again, revealing the arm that had been torn off during their earlier battle and she solemnly remembered that she no longer had arms to use.

One was broken and one was ripped off...great.

He hovered over her, and she began to blink from consciousness, his face moving in and out of focus, Now that she was not being crushed to death her body was beginning to rest, her adrenaline not pumping enough to keep her from exhaustion any longer. She felt his hand on that same cheek once more and she heard his voice rasp out.

"Say it again." So she did.

"Gaara-kun."

~Time skip to next morning~

She blinked awake, her head still turned to the side staring at her abused arm which was now turning blue from being separated from her, and beside it was a Heaven scroll.

XxX

**Author notes:**

**(1): Not in that way you sick perverts! Or maybe I'm the sick pervert for thinking enough to write an A/N about it...hm...food for thought.**


	11. Rumble In The Jungle Part 2: Poison

Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 10~

Rumble in The Jungle Part 2: Poison

**In case you have not noticed I have changed the name of the story. You ****will not**** need to re-read said story or anything like that. I have changed the name and very insignificant parts of the story in order to make it more suitable to the future plot. The plot has changed but it doesn't really matter cuz the plot isn't written yet! **

**Oh yeah and, FF has been acting up on me for the past month and I have been unable to update. Every time I tried to, an error page would pop up. It was retarded, but apparently it is fixed now. Blame FF for the slowness.**

**So in summary cuz I tend to ramble:**

**Yes the title has changed and minor parts of the story.**

**No you do not need to read anything again.**

**Not sorry for slowness because it was FF's fault. :)**

**Now that that is settled DISCLAIMER! (Anyone else hate writing these things?) **

**I don't own Naruto.**

**XxX**

Toshi dropped to the ground, using his echo location to observe the mass of heat sitting on his shoulder. It had been a day so far out in the 'Forest of Death' and he had begun to enjoy the cat's company. Tomo had been helpful with using his sight and had remained silent except for the occasional purr of approval when Toshi was able to destroy the enemy. This forest of death was not like your average forest and the young teen was thankful for the company of Kumiko's summon. If worst came to worst he could have always summoned his own summons but...well...they had a tendency to be either obnoxious or stupid...or both.

He straightened so that he was now standing in the middle of the clearing, his head moving slowly as he used his echo location to observe the forest around him. The waves that returned to his ears merely reported the image of pearly trees, foliage and the occasional animal, but there was no real danger within a 2 mile radius.

As soon as they had split up, Toshi had headed back to the outskirts of the forest once more, not intent on waiting for someone to attack him. He wanted to make the first move and as he worked his way back through the forest he had been the one to attack first. However everyone he attacked had ended up having an Earth Scroll. He had pocketed each one, hoping to use them as bargaining chips if he happened across an enemy that he felt no need nor want to fight. Satisfied that there was no danger and wouldn't be for awhile, he shrugged his shoulders as a signal for the cat to jump off.

"What are you doing?" The cat asked in a surprisingly baritone voice as its feet made contact with the ground. Toshi stopped and swung his head in the feline's direction. That was the first time he had heard the cat speak. He was beginning to think the beast was a mute...

"I've decided that it would be better in the long run if I took this time to focus on improving my kekkei genkai. If I do, it should make the rest of this challenge much easier and it will be over in a shorter amount of time." He used his echo location and watched as Tomo wandered over to the other side of the clearing and curled up under a low hanging branch.

'_Now to begin...'_

XxX

"To be honest," Hiro started. "There isn't much about Toshi that he wouldn't tell you himself. He's quiet, but by no means is he shy. He is not very strategic but he does have good judgement and the ability to become a great leader. Although, he tends to sit back and enjoy the show..." He finished by pulling out a cigarette, lighting it slowly and sticking it in his mouth before offering Kakashi one. Kakashi eye smiled and respectfully declined causing the other man to shrug before pocketing the package once more. He drew in a long breath, before releasing the smoke slowly in the opposite direction of where Kakashi had been sitting, so as not to make the man uncomfortable because of the smoke.

"He's a bastard child of a clan Matriarch and some unknown ninja and somehow or another became his ill half-brother's clan heir." Kakashi looked slightly surprised for a moment.

"Strength?" Kakashi asked. Hiro looked at him for a moment before readjusting his position so he was leaning on his elbows.

"Probably second in the village, which brings me to our villages number one genin, Kumiko Hanadeka."

XxX

It had almost been two days and Toshi had been meditating while Tomo kept watch. It looked like he was doing nothing but in reality he had been honing his skills. He had removed his headband and retied it around his left shoulder so that he could focus the echo location through his eyes as well. He had been focusing the amount of chakra he had been using souly into his echo location, and zooming in on passing teams' scrolls.

Suddenly, his sightless eyes snapped open and he smiled, a foreign gesture to anyone who knew him.

Right now his mind was zoomed in on a team just in front of him, their scroll in the back pocket of the teammate on the end. And inside the Scroll?

The symbol for Heaven.

It was still kind of fuzzy and hard to make out, but it was heaven none the less. He noticed that the squad didn't have a second scroll and began to follow them at a safe distance. He frowned though when he seen that that particular group of genin had their own target. It was a group of leaf genin, among them was the girl he had spoken to before the exam. What was her name? _Hinata...Hyuga..._He slowed noticing for the first time that Tomo was with him and he stopped ready to watch the confrontation with his echo location. The glowing figures of Hinata and her team, a boy with some kind of animal...a dog, no a puppy, inside his jacket and a taller male.

He zoomed in, noticing the fuzzy lettering of an earth scroll in Hinata's coat. The ninja Toshi had been tailing ambushed them and he realized they were grass ninja, with their swift movements and earth style jutsu.

At first Hinata's team faired fine exchanging blows with equal strength and using ruthless strategy to avoid the older genin's stronger attacks. He watched with mild interest as Hinata's white, glassy image begun some form of graceful fighting dance. Her palms lashing out with amazing speed and damaging her enemies chakra system using pressure points. Yes all went perfectly fine, until the taller of her teammates became incapacitated.

After his battalion of insects stopped his opponent got free and went after Hinata, obviously realizing that she had the scroll. The boy and the dog attacked as well with some form of move that sent them hurtling towards their enemy at a vicious pace. However one of the grass ninja had a different idea and made a huge rock wall causing the dynamic duo to hit it and become knocked unconscious.

Toshi almost sweat dropped.

They were very good as a team but once one of them was out the other two lost strategy and were unable to take care of themselves and each other. He heard Hinata cry out and made a decision. God dammit! He was going to regret this later on but right now he didn't care.

"Tomo, I'm going down there! Let me know if I attract any unwanted attention, okay?" His he heard the faint movement of bones as the cat nodded beside him. Then he bit his thumb, made a few hand signals.

Two shadowy figures appeared beside him. (Any idea what Toshi's summoning contract is? Hm?)

"I want you to remove the two enemies on the right and left from the area, then I want them destroyed." He told them, leaning forward so he looked like he was about to jump down, his eyes still trained on the guys beating up Hinata. _"Why am I doing this? ...For the scroll obviously. What other reason is there."_ The two human sized shadows swooped down from the tree and he picked up the white shapes of the enemy ninja's being picked up and carried off.

"What the-" He heard the remaining ninja explain, holding a beat up Hinata by her coat.

"Earth style: Mud Claw Jutsu!" Toshi said as he sped towards the grass ninja, feeling the familiar, unbreakable clay forming on his hands. He sliced the guy across the back causing him to drop the leaf Kunoichi in pain.

(Hinata P.O.V it gets annoying not being able to say what stuff looks like. Writing blind people is hard!)

After she fell Hinata tried hard to recover and stand up, but her body screamed in protest and all she could manage was to prop herself up using her arms. She raised her eyes, trying to locate her saviour in all the fuzziness.

Maybe it was Kiba...but Earth Style wasn't Kiba's thing...

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw someone she hadn't expected to see ever again. His silver hair, foggy steel blue eyes and tan skin...It was the guy from before the second part had begun...Toshi. Hinata had found herself unable to stop thinking about him, the times when her mind were usually occupied with Naruto she found occupied with him.

She was not stupid, she had realized right away that he was her knew crush. She hadn't thought anyone could ever replace or replicate the way she felt about Naruto. She liked Naruto because he was loud and confident. However whenever she was near Naruto she also felt slightly inadequate, because she was not even confident enough to talk to him. He was so different from her, and she felt like she should be that way. When she was talking to Toshi though, a few days earlier, his subtle confidence seemed to taunt her. It said she could be strong and quiet at the same time, that she didn't have to be obnoxious like Naruto to be confident.

She felt her face burn red and her eyes widened that he was seeing her in such a ragged state and wished that they had met again on better terms...like when she was wearing a kimono or something, I don't know, clean? She watched as he sliced at the ninja, the other ninja pouncing away crying out for his teammates.

"It's no use." Toshi's strong voice taunted, "They're dead by now. My summons have eaten them. You can no longer continue the exams so hand over you're scroll and I'll spare your life." _"The scroll of course..."_Hinata thought with a hint of sadness. To think she actually thought he was here to save her like some stereotypical knight in shining armour.

"Y-You're bluffing!" The other guy shouted back, causing Toshi to sigh.

"I never lie. If that is what you're insinuating." The other ninja simply screamed a string of curse words before sending out several vines at Toshi who sliced through them with his claws. One managed to hit him though, causing him to fly through the air, his claws becoming mud once more leaving Toshi defenceless. Hinata braced herself, expecting him to hit one of the trees, but she never heard a sound.

Opening her eyes once more she found that Toshi had twisted his body in mid air and landed in a slight crouching position, one of his arms behind him bracing himself against a tree for balance. Hinata watched as he reached to his back and pulled forth a katana, which she hadn't noticed he had until this time. Toshi straightened, placing the sword in front of him in a defensive position as the other genin ran forward ready to attack with kunai in his hands.

"Hm. Idiot." Toshi said smirking, lashing out with his sword and cutting the guy across the chest. He fell to the forest floor, clutching the wound which seemed to ooze purple liquid and sizzle.

"I-I can't m-move. What did you do?" The guy shouted.

"You should have been more sensible and accepted my offer. I'm a poison specialist and my katana is filled with a serum that disintegrates anything it touches. It will burn your body slowly like a match to a piece of paper until there is nothing but unrecognizable remains left." The guy began to cry. "M-make it stop! K-kill me please! It hurts!" Hinata watched Toshi's reaction with fear, would he really be so cruel as to let a person die that way.

"Lucky for you," Toshi began "I've never really liked the way this katana works. So I was planning on such anyway." Hinata closed her eyes as she seen Toshi whip out a kunai and then heard the faint sound of Toshi slicing through the enemy ninja's throat.

"Hey you." Hinata stiffened and opened her eyes to see Toshi's boots standing in front of her. "Get up." Hinata scrambled to do so, noticing it was much easier since the first time she had tried. "Here." He said sliding something into her hand and her eyes widened as she realized what it was. She looked up at him with wide eyes and mouth a gape, a blush burning hot on her face.

"You need one right? So there." He turned to leave but Hinata grabbed his arm and she got even redder, if that was possible.

XxX

Toshi looked at her glassy, pearl white form attached to his arm. Obviously embarrassed she took a step back and appeared to be pressing two of her fingers together. "_What is she doing?"_ He thought.

"U-Um. I..." She faltered, taking a deep breath. "I know you are an enemy ninja but it would not be smart for me to tend to my teammates out here in the open...I..." she faltered again and Toshi raised an eyebrow. "Can you please help me take my teammates somewhere safe so I can tend to them?" Toshi just stood there, his sightless eyes raking over her. Without a word he walked past her, his face feeling slightly hot as he picked up the two smaller boys that were her teammates and threw them over his shoulders.

"_Am I...blushing?"_ He asked himself in disbelief. "Get the dog." He ordered gruffly over his shoulder. He watched with his echo location as she jumped at his voice but ran to pick up the puppy. He could tell she was avoiding him with her eyes, staring off in a random direction.

"Tomo!" Toshi called out, and the cat's figure appeared in front of him. "Find shelter big enough for us."

"U-Us? You will be staying?" He heard her voice waver as the cat ran off.

"For the night. I will leave by morning, before your teammates wake up."

XxX

Thunder and lightening. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse.

He stood at the mouth of the cave Tomo had found, leaning lazily against a wall. He analyzed the traps that Hinata had set, quite impressed at how well hidden they were. In this weather no one would find them and by morning when the traps were more visible her teammates would be awake, then the 3 of them could head to the tower.

"_For now, she's stuck in a cave with two unconscious teammates and a strange enemy ninja."_ "I'm not sure whether you're brave or stupid." Oops. Did he say that out loud?

He heard her shuffle on the dirt surface and he snapped his head in her direction sending out his E.L (much easier then echo location). Next to the bodies of her comrades she sat with her head buried in her knees. He stares at the white glassy figure for awhile before sighing.

"I-...If it makes you feel any better...I was leaning more towards brave in my analysis." He said, only to be tackled a second later by her. He tensed at first. Was she attacking him? No she wasn't...she was..._hugging _him.

"Thank you so much..." She exclaimed as he glanced down at the figure clinging to him. Wow. Not that he didn't have his fangirls but no one had ever really hugged him before. He kinda liked it...

"Toshi-sama!"

"_Aw damn cat has to ruin everything."_

XxX (Hinata!...-_-' What're you looking at?)

"_Why am I hugging him? He probably thinks I'm crazy! He already said it was a possibility I was an idiot but...but he also said I was...brave! No one's ever called me __**brave**__!"_

"Toshi-sama!" She heard the cat before she seen him, the large animal appearing in front of the two. Embarrassed, Hinata quickly retreated back to where her unconscious teammates were watching the two from afar. "_So much for being brave..."_

"Toshi-sama. My Brother Yomo has just informed me that Kyoia-sama has obtained a scroll although she is currently immobile. We must hurry at once before trouble arises for her and we lose the scroll. Kumiko-hime is being informed as we speak." She watched as the silver haired boy nodded before turning his head in her direction, his foggy steel blue eyes non moving and emotionless.

"I'm afraid I'll have to leave sooner than planned." Then he bit his thumb and slammed it to the ground, affectively summoning a vampire bat.

"Hiya Toshi-kun! Wats up? Ooh! Who's this?" Suddenly the bat was standing on her head causing her to freak out slightly.

"Is she your..." He stuck up a little bat pinky in the sign for girlfriend and Hinata blushed wildly. She couldn't exactly see through the dim but she thought there was a faint pink glow to his face. Toshi cleared his throat.

"No, and shut up Machi-Machi. I have no time to listen to you. I need you to stay here until dawn and then return to your world, Hinata needs a look out while she tends to her teammates."

"Ohohoho~ Okie-dokie there boss!" The bat laughed. Toshi walked outside into the rain with a backwards wave.

"See you later. Hinata-chan."


	12. Rumble In The Jungle Part 3: Death

Don't Fear The Reaper

~Chapter 11~

Rumble in The Jungle Part 3: Death

**Finally we have Kumiko's POV. So what has 'Kumiko-hime' been up to lately in the Forest Of Death? Well we're about to find out, yo! XP **

**By the way Kouriel has made a kick ass picture of Kumiko, Kyoia, Toshi and Hiro-sensei. Check out my profile or Kouriel's for the deviantart link. It's near the top of the page and says the characters, story name and my pen name here next to the proper link. It is awesome and rocks my world. If you want pictures for your story Kouriel comes highly recommended~**

**I NOW HAVE A DEVIANTART ACCOUNT. This is where you guys can communicate with me if you want and ask me...why the hell are you taking so long to update. Cuz...lol! Alot of the times i write the chapter and then forget to post it. You guys are dealing with a forgetful on here. So here is the link;**

**H t t p : / / l a l a s h a k n m u . d e v i a n t a r t . c o m**

**Ya know, just like...remove the spaces. Anyway. Ciao!**

**I DON'T OWN NARUTO.**

Kumiko narrowed her eyes, the cat slits widened in order to take in more light in her dark surroundings. It was still day time and she was stalking through the forest of death, feeling perfectly in place and in touch with her surroundings.

Although, night was when Kumiko preferred to prowl she had yet to find a safe place to rest for the day. She, with Momo riding around on her shoulder, was going at a careless pace now, having stopped running awhile ago.

Stopping she jumped up into a nearby tree hiding amongst the foliage, back braced up against the trunk. Momo, padded silently to a smaller branch just above her. When all the other people had begun to settle for the night and rest, Kumiko would be ready to strike. After all, wasn't that one of the many ninja rules direct from the ninja handbook? Now how did that go? Oh yeah!

"A ninja waits until the time is right, when the enemy sleeps and drops his guard, when his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night. That is the moment for the ninja to strike." Kumiko paused, that was not her voice that had recited the familiar rule. It was male. Nope, definitely not her voice. She looked down at the group of three that she hadn't noticed before, her face showing surprise before become a Cheshire grin.

It was the 'Konoha Epic Fail' rookie dream squad, consisting of Mr. All Ego Asshat and Emo, The Orange Clad Wonder Boy and the Pink Haired Girl who _pretended_ to be a Kunoichi. So, they were making a password for fear they would get separated.

Stupid rookies.

Stupid Children.

Maybe she should mess with them...just a little. After all she did have the time. She wasn`t going to hurt them, just _play around_ a little.

"Momo." She whispered, reaching for the scythe on her back. The cat seemed to retreat to some distant location, silent as a shadow. Hand on the handle of her scythe she removed it, shifting to get used to the feel of it missing, before flicking her wrist and sending a massive, powerful wave of reaper energy, sending the rookies flying in all directions.

From her vantage point she could see all three of them.

The pink haired bother was out cold and probably would be for awhile, so Kumiko jumped down and stowed her in a safe place, some place she would be safe in while Kumiko had her fun. Like she said, she wasn't going to hurt them...too much. She quickly formed a transformation, making sure to get all the details and then started talking to herself, trying to mimic the other girl's high pitched voice. She walked towards the area she had last seen Sasuke, fake gasping when he practically jumped out from under a bush, ready to strike.

"Sakura."

Now, how would the fangirl react...maybe... "Sasuke! What was that!" She said with worry, beginning to move towards him.

"Stay there!" Kumiko stopped, her face showing confusion.

"First, answer the question: When does a ninja strike?" Kumiko looked intent while she recited the verse perfectly, and she seen Sasuke visibly relax. She mentally grinned, before pretending to look around curiously.

"H-hey what's that?" She asked pointing towards her very own scythe, which was lying a few feet in front of them. She seen his eyes widen with realization.

"Damn! It's the mist team! Come here Sakura, we can't get separated again, not with them lurking around...and targeting us, by the looks of it." She nodded and hurriedly moved beside him, making sure to act as fangirly as possible. Although she kept eyeing her scythe...poor scythe, he didn't deserve to lie on the ground like that. On the bright side, she liked the fact that her team freaked him out so much.

Kumiko & Co. – 1 Sasuke & Co. – 0.

Fast approaching footsteps roused her from her musings. "Sasuke!" Through the bushes came Sakura...the real Sakura. "_Damn, there goes my fun..._" Kumiko thought, mentally groaning. Sasuke tensed and Sakura stopped when she saw her other self. "Who are you and what are you doing with my Sasuke-Kun!" She practically screamed with outrage upon seeing her. "Who am I? Who are you! And what are you doing calling him your Sasuke! He's mine!" Kumiko mentally patted herself on the back, good fake outrage without laughing. Suddenly though she found a kunai to her throat. Guess she didn't do well enough.

"You're the quickest one yet. You missed something..." He stated, eyes red with the sharingan. She liked the sharringan, she decided, it reminded her of fighting demons back in purgatory. With their red, flecked eyes full of mindless rage and hatred, the eyes that revealed that they were truly beasts. The eyes that she had no problem, with looking into as she mindlessly slaughtered their owners, which she had had over 100 years to get used to. Now what could she have missed?

Oh yeah, the –Kun on the end of his name.

"Hm, caught me, Uchiha." She answered in her normal, partial monotone silk voice.

"Why'd you attack us with that blast!" Sakura screeched at the mirror of herself, who shrugged in response.

"Bored, I guess. I wasn't planning on hurting you, just wanted to see how long I could have you fooled. Guess not long, thanks to your teammate."

"You could have killed us with that blast!" Was the pink haired wonder's response.

"No, I couldn't. Trust me. If I had wanted to kill you with that blast, you'd be dead." She then laughed, her body gently fazing back to its normal form.

"Return." Her scythe levitated off of the ground and slid its handle into her hand. "I'm sorry, koi." She said, giving the blade a little peck before placing it on her back. Sakura stared at her like she had 5 heads.

"_Koi?_" The pinkette asked in a slightly miffed tone.

"Yes. You have a problem with that? My weapon is reliable, unlike some men I know. " Kumiko growled, green eyes blazing as her glare made Sakura shake in fear before glaring at the ground pointedly when she said 'unlike some men I know'. She dared not ramble on about the over 100 years her scythe had served her well, where as _he _had left her at only 50, the stupid, incorrigible-

"Are you sure that's the only reason you attacked us?" Sasuke's voice broke into her thoughts and she silently thanked Matsuro for the intervention. She laughed.

"Of _course_! But if you really want me to fight you I can." Sakura laughed and got all cocky.

"Ha!" She said. "It's 2 against one. You're stupid if you think you win with those uneven odds." Kumiko couldn't help but smirk, placing a hand on her hip and raising her eyes to meet theirs levelly. Her eyes made Sakura begin to choke on air and she relished the 'fear' she just struck into the young girl.

XxX (Sakura P.O.V)

Sakura began to choke on air. A mixture of fear and awe ran through her body turning her blood cold. Her mouth went dry, she stiffened and her mind went through a moment of clarity.

Before her stood Kumiko Hanadeka, an enemy ninja from Kirigakure no Sato. Her confidence and strength raked over her soul like a cold claw. Her piercing and vivid cat eyes dared her to challenge her, dared her to try something she'd never done before. It challenged her to match the slightly older girl's confidence. She was extremely beautiful right now and the image also seemed to boarder on majestic. Her long silky brunette hair was being played with by a gentle breeze, as was her latest season 'HanaHana Styles' shirt. Not only that but that blast, that pure unmatched power from earlier, was amazing.

Sasuke stood off to the side, looking at Sakura with a mix of confusion. Sakura couldn't blame him; her reactions had been completely spontaneous and unexpected.

The beauty.

The fashion sense.

The confidence.

The strength.

So cool...

Suddenly she felt like a little girl back in the academy, reading about all the heroic and amazing Kunoichi of the world and wanting to be just like them.

Right now, she wanted to be like Kumiko.

XxX (I know that was a little weird, but it's important. NOT YURI!)

Kumiko however, thought the other girl was simply afraid, not awe filled.

"Hm," She crossed her arms "You're so pathetic, I don't even consider you a Kunoichi. Much less someone who could match my strength or pose a threat. Even if you did _try_ to fight, it still might as well have been me vs. Sasuke in the first place." She answered Sakura's earlier question with a carefree tone, waving carelessly after.

She watched as the girl became extremely crestfallen and almost felt bad.

Almost.

Hey, sometimes you just needed to hear the truth. The three stood there in a long awkward silence, before Kumiko began to walk away towards the edge of the clearing. She was just about to disappear into the trees when she heard a rustling from the bushes and someone calling out to the two she had just left behind. Well orangey is back. Out of curiosity she glanced over her shoulder once to watch as the password was repeated perfectly.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, Kumiko did not know Naruto Uzumaki very well but she knew something was off. Trust me; you didn't even have to have spoken to the kid to know he was too dumb to remember that little riddle. She watched as his teammates came to the same realization, mildly amused.

She chuckled and began to walk again, figuring it was just another genin not worth even Naruto's time. She jumped up into the trees, searching for Momo before smiling in satisfaction when the cat appeared next to her.

She rubbed the cat's head, glancing over her shoulder once more and down at the scene before her only to find both Sasuke and Sakura unable to move, Naruto nowhere in sight and the transvestite thing from earlier with the strange soul energy.

XxX

"Kumiko's always been a little strange, according to all those around her." Hiro began. "She has the ability to be a prodigy, heck she could be an anbu right now if she wanted. Mature far beyond her years." Hiro glanced sideways at Kakashi, trying to study the other man's face, but he could read nothing.

"Distrusts men. Doesn't like to feel as if she's relying on them. That's about all I could tell you...I can't say I know much about her family. Just that she is adopted." Kakashi sighed before getting up and leaving without looking back once.

XxX

Her face turned to a mixture of disgust and shock, its soul energy was getting stronger now and was almost causing her to feel nauseous. She expected the two genin to at least be making a scene, shouting at the intruder or...or...well, something. Not just standing there. Should she...no! Whatever was going on down there was none of her concern.

With that last thought she took off as quickly as she could into the forest heading away from the clearing. But the farther away she got the more she began to slow and finally she came to a complete stop.

Dammit! Those two...are no match for that...that person. Combined their soul energy is completely engulfed by the raw power.

"You sensed something you didn't like didn't you." She heard from behind her. Startled she turned, only to recognize Momo and calm down.

"Momo. Did...I ever explain to you the dynamics of soul energy?"

"No." Kumiko crossed her arms and ducked her head, beginning to shake.

"The strength of one's soul energy is determined by how old it is. Once you become a reaper, your soul automatically gets boosted to a certain strength...a certain age...and because of that it has its own distinct feel...it's own signature. A normal human soul can also be strong, depending on how many lives it has lived. In other words the result of being reincarnated. In relation the strength of your soul affects your strength in general and how strong you are in life, whic is why reapers almost never die when reborn."

"And this has suddenly become the topic of conversation why?"

"That soul energy...that person's soul energy amounts to only 3 things. A Demon, a multi-reincarnated human or...or a reaper. And right now, it feels like a reaper's energy. I didn't feel it when I was so close because it was so intoxicating but now..." The cat sat behind her on a branch, drinking in the mood.

"This matters because...?"

"Those children are going to die!"


	13. Guidance Is Needed

Okay guys, after reviewing my thoughts i've decided to rewrite this story. I reviewed my current work and decided that there were some minor things that I wanted to change and stuff I wanted to rearrange.

**I would really appreciate it if you guys would critique me and give my some comments. What do YOU want to see change when I rewrite the story or, what would you kill me if I changed? Don't like Kojuro-sensei's haircut? Let me know. I would really like to hear your thoughts. This author needs some guidance.**

Let me know what you think.

Lol, PS. Show me some love on deviantart!

**lalashaknmu . deviantart . com**


	14. REWRITE IS UP!

The Rewrite of 'Don't Fear The Reaper' is up! Review please!


End file.
